We were introduced to CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) during our IB Orientation Trip by Mr. Lockwood. Throughout grade 11, I hope to do things which fulfills Creativity, Action and Service and the 8 outcomes (criteria).

The 8 outcomes (criteria) that we need to fulfill throughout the 2 year IB Diploma Course are;

  • Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth
  • Undertaken new challenges
  • Planned and initiated activities
  • Worked collaboratively with others
  • Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
  • Engaged with issues of global importance
  • Considered the ethical implications of their actions
  • Developed new skills

My aim for this year is to fulfill all the 8 outcomes in a form of Creativity, Action and Service.

For Semester 1, I’ve chosen Sunflower Project as my Community Service Activity at OSC. In this activity, we teach local children aged around 6 to 13 how to swim. Some may be absolute beginners and some may already know how to swim but at the end of the day, the goal in this activity is to teach the proper way of swimming with the help of Mr. Stanly and also to get to know them better. I’ve done this activity last year in the first semester, so I already have some idea about how this activity runs. For the first half an hour or so, Mr. Stanly tells the children what to do and we support them, fix if something it not right etc, and after that we play with them for half an hour. However, this year we’re going to make it more challenging and take the initiatives ourselves, instead of Mr. Stanly telling the children what to do. This is going to be a new challenge for me and all the other member of this activity and since we’re going to teach them, we have to work collaboratively with others and plan what we’re going to train each week. Although I’m not the leader of this activity, I’m fully committed to attend every week and take the new challenge. This Community Service Activity will be one of my Action and Service in 11th grade.

Another goal for this year is to run the Badminton ASA. I’ll be running this ASA from the 2nd quarter after the October break with Mo. We have already talked to Ms. Wolfe, the ASA coordinator, and we have decided that we’ll run this ASA on Monday. We also talked to Mr. De Silva for supervising and since he’s in school on Monday and able to supervise, I believe we’re now ready to run this ASA. We’re planning to teach whole range of people, from absolute beginners to veterans. This is the first time I’m actually taking the initiative to teach people how to play badminton, therefore this is going to be a new challenge for me. In order to make this ASA a success, I will need to collaborate with Mo to plan what we’re going to teach every week. Running this ASA will require perseverance since that not everybody can play badminton very well and that we may have to teach from the very beginning. However, I’m 120% committed to take this challenge because I may be able to develop new skills, that is teaching how to play badminton and also because if we teach people how to play badminton and develop their skills, our school may be able to participate in SAISA Badminton and other Inter-school Competitions. Running this Badminton ASA will be one of my Action and Service this year.

Another goal for this year is to create Community Service Activity that is aimed to organize the art room and make it a better environment for students. Last year, although this activity was not official, I was taking part in this activity with several other people from my grade and we did things that would benefit students, such as sharpening the pencils and sorting them in the correct place, cleaning the paint brushes and sort them according to different sizes, disposing the empty ink/paint tubes, cleaning the sink, organizing the grade 12’s art room, sorting the coloured sheets according to different sizes, sorting out different tools in particular boxes etc and whole range of things that would benefit the students. Therefore my goal is to make this activity an official Community Service Activity from the second semester. However, I first need to find someone who wants to run this activity with me, then talk to Ms. Barnett, the art teacher and Ms. Shameela, the Community Service coordinator, therefore there are still many things I need to do first. However, if I’m able to make this an official activity, this will be one of my Creativity for this year.