The nature of CAS

The na­tu­re of CAS

CAS is at the he­art of the Dip­lo­ma Prog­ram­me. It is or­ga­ni­zed around the three strands of cre­a­ti­vi­ty, ac­ti­vi­ty and ser­vi­ce de­fi­ned as fol­lows.

CRE­A­TI­VI­TY – exp­lo­ring and ex­ten­ding ide­as le­a­ding to an ori­gi­nal or in­terp­re­ti­ve pro­duct or per­for­man­ce

AC­TI­VI­TY – phy­si­cal exer­ti­on cont­ri­bu­ting to a he­alt­hy li­fes­ty­le

SER­VI­CE – col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve and re­cip­ro­cal en­ga­ge­ment with the com­mu­ni­ty in res­pon­se to an aut­hen­tic need

Suc­cess­ful comp­le­ti­on of CAS is a re­qui­re­ment for the award of the IB Dip­lo­ma.

CAS comp­le­ments a chal­len­ging aca­de­mic prog­ram­me in a ho­lis­tic way, pro­vi­ding op­por­tu­ni­ties for self-de­ter­mi­na­ti­on, col­la­bo­ra­ti­on, ac­comp­lish­ment and en­joy­ment. A me­a­ning­ful CAS prog­ram­me is a jour­ney of dis­co­ve­ry of self and ot­hers.

The CAS prog­ram­me be­gins at the start of the Dip­lo­ma Prog­ram­me and con­ti­nu­es re­gu­lar­ly, ide­al­ly on a week­ly ba­sis, for at le­ast 18 months.

All CAS stu­dents main­tain and comp­le­te a CAS port­fo­lio on Ma­na­ge­Bac as evi­den­ce of their en­ga­ge­ment with CAS. It is a col­lec­ti­on of evi­den­ce that show­ca­ses CAS ex­pe­rien­ces and for stu­dent ref­lec­ti­ons; it is not for­mal­ly as­ses­sed.

Comp­le­ti­on of CAS is ba­sed on stu­dent ac­hie­ve­ment of the se­ven CAS le­ar­ning out­co­mes.

Stu­dents en­ga­ge in CAS ex­pe­rien­ces in­vol­ving one or more of the three CAS strands. A CAS ex­pe­rien­ce can be a sing­le event or may be an ex­ten­ded se­ries of events.

Furt­her, stu­dents un­der­ta­ke a CAS pro­ject of at le­ast one month’s du­ra­ti­on. It can add­ress any sing­le strand of CAS, or com­bi­ne two or all three strands.

Stu­dents use CAS sta­ges (in­ves­ti­ga­ti­on, pre­pa­ra­ti­on, ac­ti­on, ref­lec­ti­on and de­monst­ra­ti­on) as a fra­me­work for CAS ex­pe­rien­ces and the CAS pro­ject.

The­re are three for­mal do­cu­men­ted in­ter­views stu­dents must have with their CAS coor­di­na­tor/ad­vi­ser (at the be­gin­ning of the CAS prog­ram­me, at the end of the first year and at the end of the CAS prog­ram­me).

CAS emp­ha­si­zes ref­lec­ti­on which is cent­ral to buil­ding a deep and rich ex­pe­rien­ce in CAS.