The CAS Strands

Creativity

This aspect of CAS is interpreted as imaginatively as possible to cover a wide range of arts and other activities outside the normal curriculum that include creative thinking in the design and carrying out of service projects. This could involve dance, theatre, and music, but could also include activities that involve creative thinking in their creation and implementation, such as organizing an event or competition, developing proposals, and designing lessons. You should be engaged in new roles wherever possible. Individual commitment to continued participation in an art form such as a musical instrument or photography is not accepted as CAS unless it respects the requirements for all CAS activities: that the activity/project sets you a challenge, that aspects of participation in the activity are new to you, that goals are set and that the you reflect on your progress.

Activity

This aspect of CAS can include participation in sport or other activities requiring physical exertion-such as expeditions and camping trips, or digging trenches to lay water pipes to bring fresh water to a village. You are encouraged to be involved in group and team activities, but an individual commitment is acceptable where the general requirements of CAS are met: goals are set and you reflect on progress. Your activity experience should include something that presents a challenge to you, that aspects of participation in the activity are new to you, and that goals are set and that the you reflect on your progress.

Service

Service projects and activities are often the most transforming element of the CAS Programme for the individual student; they have the potential to nurture and mould global citizens. There are different ways that you can be involved in Service; what underpins the various forms of Service is that you are involved in making a meaningful contribution to the community. The community may be the school, the local district, or it may exist on national and international levels (such as undertaking projects of assistance in a developing country).

As CAS aims to extend the student, your CAS programme should include activities that see you working beyond the school community. Collaboration with members of a community, as opposed to working for, provides the most positive Service experiences. To best address the differences in privilege that exist between those who give service and those members of a community who are being served, a relationship of respect and mutuality should be established and promoted between these two groups. The best results for community development take place when a working relationship is created, where all parties are involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of service activities.

Four Types of Service:

• Direct service: Student interaction involves people, the environment or animals. For example, this can appear as one-on-one tutoring, developing a garden in partnership with refugees, or working in an animal shelter.

• Indirect service: Though students do not see the recipients of indirect service, they have verified their actions will benefit the community or environment. For example, this can appear as re-designing  a non-profit organization’s website, writing original picture books to teach a language, or nurturing tree seedlings for planting.

• Advocacy: Students speak on behalf of a cause or concern to promote action on an issue of public interest. For example, this may appear as initiating an awareness campaign on hunger, performing a play on replacing bullying with respect, or creating a video on sustainable water solutions.

• Research: Students collect information through varied sources, analyse data, and report on a topic of importance to influence policy or practice. For example, they may conduct environmental surveys to influence their school, contribute to a study of animal migration, compile effective means to reduce litter in public spaces, or conduct social research by interviewing people on topics such as homelessness, unemployment or isolation.