Creativity Activity Service (CAS) is at the heart of the Diploma Programme. It is one of the three essential elements in Sixth Form students' Diploma Programme experience. It means being involved in a range of experiences alongside your academic studies throughout your time in the Sixth Form. Please download this guide for a more detailed overview.

The three strands of CAS are characterised 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.

The strands are often interwoven, for example if you become involved in the arts or physical projects you may consider coaching young people or seniors in a residential home in these areas.

Recent CAS projects have included volunteering for a bereavement charity, working in charity shops, running fundraising events, teaching in other schools and colleges and working for a humanitarian charity in Malawi.

CAS can also be carried out within the school community. Projects have included running Action! sessions for Y7&8 Students (anything from table tennis to textiles, drama games to badminton) lunchtime clubs and after-school sports sessions.

CAS enables you to enhance your personal and interpersonal development through experiential learning. At the same time, it provides an important counterbalance to the academic nature of the rest of the Diploma Programme. A good CAS programme should be both challenging and enjoyable, a personal journey of self discovery. Each individual student has a different starting point, and therefore different goals and needs, but for many, their CAS activities include experiences that are profound and life changing.

Successful completion of CAS is a requirement for the award of the IB diploma. CAS is not formally assessed but you need to document your activities and provide evidence that you have achieved the right learning outcomes.