CAS Strands

• Creativity in CAS provides students with the opportunity to explore their own sense of original thinking and expression. 

• By striving for new possibilities, students may discover ways to meet challenges and identify strengths that carry them forward with curiosity and continued innovation. 

• Creativity is about exercising creative skills, expression, and thinking for adaptation, innovation, problem-solving, etc. for you to do your own performance or creation, also with other like-minded people. 

• It can include any of the activities in the visual and performing arts, e.g.: composing music, creating arts and crafts, painting a series of portraits, participating in drama productions, etc.

• It can also be in the literary arts, including public speaking, such as writing short fiction stories, poems, participating in speech contests, Model United Nations, etc.

• It can also be done through technology, such as developing a website, coding/ programming, designing furniture, etc.

• Creativity can also be explored and developed in culinary arts, designing and tailoring, landscaping, etc.

• See the U.K. national health guidelines for young people here, and the 'perceived exertion rate' here.

• Things that you can do for this strand can range from recreational and competitive sports to strengthening the muscles and stamina for athletics or for general fitness and even rehabilitation, to those wellness activities that involve an increased heart rate and working out a sweat.

• Aside from joining our Athletics Programme or joining groups and sessions off-campus (e.g. horseback riding, fencing, the martial arts, different kinds of dances, etc.), you can also work with a qualified personal trainer on your own fitness goals.

• If you are keen on outdoor activities, you can plan and do a series of hikes, cycling trips, rock climbing events, etc. for this strand as well.

You can engage with any of the four types of Service:

• Direct: Student interaction involves people, the environment or animals. (*During the COVID-19 pandemic, students need to follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the Malaysian Government and in other countries of their residency.)

• Indirect: Though students do not see the recipients of indirect service, they have verified their actions will benefit the community or environment. This is typically done in the form of goods/ essential supply collection and donation, and raising funds to procure particular items that will benefit individuals, organisations, or the environment

• Advocacy: Students speak on behalf of a cause or concern to promote action on an issue of public interest. The causes can be many and range from environmental protection to animal rights and well-being, to human diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), etc.

• Research: Students collect information through varied sources, analyse data, and report on a topic of importance to influence policy or practice. This can be done through the kinds of work that our Green Council does to maintain our school's WWF Eco-Schools membership (e.g. the data needed to promote practices to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, achieve Zero Waste, etc.); our clubs and community partnership clubs working with inclusion (e.g. educating the general public on Down Syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, etc).

Reciprocal Engagement: 

• It is always important to ask during service interactions, 'What am I learning from the people whom I am helping?', and 'What am I receiving from them?' 

• There is an idea of service being a 'one-way street': the 'Haves' help the 'Have Nots'. This is overly simplified, but think about your reciprocal engagement with your partner community members by answering the above questions.

• In order to practice the above, 'single incidents of engagement with individuals in a service context can lack depth and meaning. When possible, interactions involving people in a service context best occur with a regularity that builds and sustains relationships for the mutual benefit of all'.