Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS)

Together with TOK and the Extended Essay, CAS – Creativity, Activity, Service – is at the heart of the Diploma Programme. It is designed to strengthen and extend students' personal and interpersonal learning by involving them in a range of enjoyable and significant individual and group experiences, as well as a CAS project. CAS enables students to demonstrate attributes of the IB learner profile and, in real and practical ways, to grow as unique individuals who also recognise their role in relation to others.

CAS means learning through experience in the three CAS strands Creativity, Activity and Service. Creativity includes experiences that involve and encourage creative thinking, e.g. activities related to theatre, art, literature and music. Activity means physical activity supporting a healthy lifestyle. Service meets a genuine need and benefits others; it can be carried out at the school, in the community or abroad and is always unpaid. All experiences and projects should lead to real results and pose personal challenges. The best experiences and projects combine at least two of the CAS strands.

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 and in at least one CAS project which they initiate, plan, organise and carry out themselves in collaboration with others.

Successful completion of CAS is a requirement for the award of the IB Diploma. While not formally assessed, students must regularly maintain and complete a CAS portfolio as evidence of their involvement in CAS, reflecting on their experiences and providing evidence of achieving the seven learning outcomes over a period of 18 months.

The CAS policy of Felix-Klein-Gymnasium is, on the one hand, to offer students a wide range of possible activities – especially combined service experiences and projects within the school and the community – and, on the other hand, to encourage them to choose and organise their own projects according to their strengths and interests. The range of long- and short-term CAS endeavours on offer includes experiences and projects:

• within the school, e.g. at the school's Advent Bazaar, with Unicef events in the foyer, English Afternoon for primary and nursery school children in the school garden, and in the library, the German Language Class, the lunchtime break, the school choir and orchestra as well as other clubs;
• in the nursery and primary schools with which the FKG cooperates closely in its gifted-education programme;
• in the community, e.g. with the local Unicef group, the YMCA, the telephone hotline for young people, the University, senior citizens' residences and a soup kitchen.

Students are expected to plan a varied and balanced CAS programme that enables them to reach their own personal goals as well as the CAS learning outcomes, and to put this programme into practice over a period of 18 months. It must consist of a variety of long- and short-term endeavours and at least one CAS project that they, in collaboration with others, initiate, plan, organise and carry out themselves. The CAS coordinator provides support and advice regarding project selection and planning. Each project is documented and reflected upon before, during and after the activity in the CAS portfolio.

CAS sessions: Two lessons a week are used for meetings between the students and the CAS coordinator, either for the whole group or for individual students. Group meetings cover, for instance, instruction on CAS and experience-based learning through guided reflection, as well as the planning of group activities. During personal interviews the CAS coordinator discusses and evaluates each student's individual programmes and projects.

Presentations: Students are required to give presentations of their work for the (school) community at CAS festivals and/or other events. Each student finishes their CAS programme with a final presentation. The general goals and requirements of CAS at Felix-Klein-Gymnasium are laid down in the ‘Creativity, Activity, Service guide for students’.