Community CAS

Service as Action (SaA) is a foundational element of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP). It seeks to develop caring members of the community who act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and their environment. Service as action requires students to engage with their local community through community or personal projects and provides opportunities for students to explore, design, implement, and reflect on their efforts to positively impact their local environment. Through Service as Action experiences, students learn the value of community participation and gain a deeper understanding of the issues facing their immediate surroundings.

At Dwight London Service as Action and Creativity, Activity and Service are implemented in the school curriculum. Units of study offer students opportunities to take action in and outside lessons. Action is embedded in the tutoring system with Tuesdays dedicated to research, discussion and reflection to raise awareness of issues related to our local and global community.

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Action continues in the Diploma programme under the name of Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS). Studied throughout the Diploma Programme, CAS involves students in a range of activities alongside their academic studies. It is not formally assessed. However, students reflect on their CAS experiences as part of the DP, and provide evidence of achieving the seven learning outcomes for CAS. The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterised as follows:

• Creativity – arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
• Activity – physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the DP.
• Service – an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected.

In order to demonstrate these concepts, students are required to undertake a CAS project. The project challenges students to:

• show initiative
• demonstrate perseverance
• develop skills such as collaboration, problem solving and decision making.

CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience.
It provides opportunities for self-determination and collaboration with others, fostering a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment from their work.
At the same time, CAS is an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the DP helping students stay balanced.

In addition to the teacher directed activities in each individual subject and students' self-directed activity, on Friday 11th February students from Year 7 to Year 13 took part in a Service Learning day devoted to supporting our local community. Photos can be seen in the social media post from our Instagram channel.