International Baccalaureate World School at Warwick High School

CAS Creativity, Activity, Service

“…if you believe in something, you must not just think or talk or write, but must act.”  (Peterson 2003) 

CAS is at the heart of the Diploma Programme. With its holistic approach, CAS is designed to strengthen and extend students’ personal and interpersonal learning. 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

                  -The Creative Action Service Guide (2015) 

As a shining beacon of our values, CAS 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. Students develop skills, attitudes and dispositions through a variety of individual and group experiences that provide students with opportunities to explore their interests and express their passions, personalities and perspectives. CAS complements a challenging academic programme in a holistic way, providing opportunities for self-determination, collaboration, accomplishment and enjoyment.

Aims of CAS 

The CAS programme aims to develop students who: 

  • enjoy and find significance in a range of CAS experiences
  • purposefully reflect upon their experiences 
  • identify goals, develop strategies and determine further actions for personal growth 
  • explore new possibilities, embrace new challenges and adapt to new roles 
  • actively participate in planned, sustained, and collaborative CAS projects 
  • understand they are members of local and global communities with responsibilities towards each other and the environment.

Learning Outcomes

Student completion of CAS is based on the achievement of the seven CAS learning outcomes realized through the student’s commitment to his or her CAS programme over a period of 18 months. These learning outcomes articulate what a CAS student is able to do at some point during his or her CAS programme. Through meaningful and purposeful CAS experiences, students develop the necessary skills, attributes and understandings to achieve the seven CAS learning outcomes. 

Some learning outcomes may be achieved many times, while others may be achieved less frequently. Not all CAS experiences lead to a CAS learning outcome. Students provide the school with evidence in their CAS portfolio of having achieved each learning outcome at least once through their CAS programme. The CAS coordinator must reach agreement with the student as to what evidence is necessary to demonstrate achievement of each CAS learning outcome. Commonly, the evidence of achieving the seven CAS learning outcomes is found in students’ reflections. 

In CAS, there are seven learning outcomes.

  1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
    • Students are able to see themselves as individuals with various abilities and skills, of which some are more developed than others.
  2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
    • A new challenge may be an unfamiliar experience or an extension of an existing one. The newly acquired or developed skills may be shown through experiences that the student has not previously undertaken or through increased expertise in an established area.
  3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
    • Students can articulate the stages from conceiving an idea to executing a plan for a CAS experience or series of CAS experiences. This may be accomplished in collaboration with other participants. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process.
  4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
    • Students demonstrate regular involvement and active engagement in CAS.
  5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
    • Students are able to identify, demonstrate and critically discuss the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experiences.
  6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
    • Students are able to identify and demonstrate their understanding of global issues, make responsible decisions, and take appropriate action in response to the issue either locally, nationally or internationally.
  7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
    • Students show awareness of the consequences of choices and actions in planning and carrying out CAS experiences.

Documents and Forms