CAS is at the heart of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). With its holistic approach, it is designed to strengthen and extend students’ personal and interpersonal learning from the PYP and MYP.
CAS 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
AS enables students to demonstrate attributes of the IB learner profile in real and practical ways, to grow as unique individuals, and to recognize their role in relation to others. Each individual student has a different starting point and different needs and goals. CAS is individualized according to student interests, skills, values, and background.
The school and students must give CAS as much importance as any other element of the Diploma Programme, and ensure sufficient time is allocated for engagement in CAS.
Successful completion of CAS is a requirement for the award of the IB Diploma.
The CAS programme formally begins at the start of the Diploma Programme and continues regularly, ideally on a weekly basis, for at least 18 months with a reasonable balance between creativity, activity, and service.
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 that challenges students to show initiative, demonstrate perseverance, and develop skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making. The CAS project can address any single strand of CAS, or combine two or all three strands. Students use the CAS stages (investigation, preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration) as a framework for CAS experiences and the CAS project.
All CAS students are expected to maintain and complete a CAS portfolio as evidence of their engagement with CAS. The CAS portfolio is a collection of evidence that showcases CAS experiences and for student reflections.
There are three formal documented interviews students must have with their CAS adviser. The first interview is at the beginning of the CAS programme, the second at the end of the first year, and the third interview is at the end of the CAS programme.
(excerpt from CAS guide for students from 2017)
