Creativity Activity Service (CAS)
Creativity, Activity, Service
CAS is a mandatory core element of the IB Diploma Programme. Its purpose is to enable students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience. Although it is not part of the regular curriculum and is not formally assessed, successful completion of CAS is a requirement for the award of the IB Diploma.
CAS is organised around the 3 strands of creativity, activity and service defined as follows:
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Creativity |
arts and other experiences that involve creative thinking |
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Activity |
a physical activity contributing to a healthy lifestyle |
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Service |
an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student |
At BSM, all students in Year 12 and Year 13 complete an 18-month CAS program and produce a portfolio on ManageBac, showing evidence of their CAS experiences and their project.
We motivate students to discover individual talents and undertake new challenges, either inside or outside the school environment. Through CAS, they learn how to cooperate with others and look at the world with an open-minded perspective. The students are encouraged to take risks, show perseverance, commitment and demonstrate their ability to plan and initiate activities independently.
CAS Handbook
CAS Fair
At the beginning of each school year, we host a CAS Fair for the Year 12 pupils and parents to help them find volunteering opportunities to fulfill the Service strand of CAS.
After a couple of years of remote online CAS Fairs due to COVID-19, on 19 September 2022 it was exciting for us to host our first in-person CAS fair since 2019. It was amazing to have such a wide range of charities outlining their volunteering opportunities and it was a remarkable success.
BSM CAS opportunities
Peace Week
This year, a group of Year 12 students organised an awareness campaign to celebrate The International Day of Peace (21 September 2022). Throughout the week, they planned various activities for the different year groups of the Senir School and promoted the importance of peace, whilst keeping in mind the events happening around the world. In assembly; they discussed important topics such as racism and inequality and organised a bake sale, raising €320 for UNICEF.
“For Peace Week we organised a series of activities such as a poem competition that prompted students to explain what peace meant to them. I enjoyed planning the week because we managed to get together and collaborate to produce creative ways to celebrate the important day.”
Collection of goods of first necessity
Terza Settimana Onlus is a local charity which supports families within our community to fulfill their basic needs. Throughout the year, BSM organises precious collections of goods (food, sanitary items, school supplies) and some of our Sixth Formers plan and oversee this as part of their Service commitment of CAS. We are proud of our achievements.
Henderson Heat
Henderson Heat is the proud school newspaper of BSM, which also counts a Christmas edition. The newspaper writes about general school news and events along with monthly editions of creative stories and poetries. The newspaper is run by Year 13’s with contributions from students in other year groups.
“We have a lot of freedom to write about any topic of our choice, it is well organised and the year 13’s do an excellent job and make it a nice environment for all writers of the paper. The head of the paper Bianca is frequently reminding us to write our articles which helps us stay on top of things” (Joe, Year 12)
Model United Nations (MUN)
Model United Nations (MUN) is a simulation of the United Nations working sessions in which students act as ambassadors. Each participant represents a different country and is required to respect faithfully the assigned country’s values and interests.
It’s a cooperative competition in which participants interact on matters of international politics.
Every year many of our IB students take part in this remarkable experience to improve their collaboration and leadership skills. It is also a way of strengthening their technical English and public speaking techniques. In November 2022, some of our BSM students took part in the Milan MUN Conference in Barcelona.
Other opportunities are:
Helping the school at different events: Halloween Disco, Christmas Fair, Winterval festival, Summer Aperitivo etc…
Organising fundraising events/bake sales for Unicef and Make a Wish
Taking part in an eco-club
Tutoring younger pupils in school
Taking part in the school play and concerts
Examples of CAS International Projects
Missioni Onlus
Missioni is a non-profit organization that strives to help people in demanding situations with their basic needs. Every year, hundreds of Italian students aged between 15- and 18-years old volunteer abroad, for example in some of the poorest areas of Peru. They help to build schools, houses, and other crucial infrastructure. We are proud of our students that took part in such a meaningful experience.
‘Throughout the trip I was hit by the sense of happiness that these people that had nothing always seemed to have, despite all the hardship they face, whereas us at home often seem to complain about issues such as “bad Wi-Fi” that we take for granted to even have’ (Bianca, Year 13)
Extra-curricular Opportunities
BSM supports the CAS program and IB students can choose from a broad range of extra-curricular activities that fulfil the Creativity and Activity strands. These include an art club, chess club, debating club, Irish dance, badminton, karate, football, gymnastics clubs, History club, choir, etc.