Not everyone in the school will have heard of CAS. It’s about learning through doing and is part of the grade 11 and 12 program at SIS. Throughout the 2 year long Diploma Program (DP), apart from the 6 mandatory subjects that must be taken, all of the students must participate in CAS ‘experiences’, which fall into the categories of Creativity, Activity and Service. CAS is a very important aspect of the DP, and, ranging from campaigning to writing articles, there are many different extra curricular groups in the school that students can join to work towards developing a good CAS portfolio. Of course not all CAS should be done in school; a good CAS portfolio should be a mix of in school and out of school experiences. Below are some very interesting groups that students in grades 11 and 12 can join within the school.

Rhino Preservation Group 

Rhino group is a group that works towards raising awareness about the poaching of rhinos around the world and how this endangers them. In order to do so, the group has created an Instagram account, as well as videos, that give information about this issue; these will continue to be updated throughout the year. They’ve also aimed at having a more global campaign by sending off information to schools in Vietnam; last year, they also encouraged students to come and take pictures with their poster to join their campaign. This past weekend, a march took place in protest of poaching, and was a large success. It’s a fun group to join, plus it qualifies as both service and creativity CAS.

Amnesty 

Amnesty is a group that aims to stop or raise awareness of human rights violations all over the world. A couple examples of campaigns they’ve done within the previous year include: trying to make abortion legal in Ireland; aiming to eradicate a law in Tunisia which forces women to marry their rapists; as well as one in support of  cartoonist from Malaysia called Zunar, who was threatened with  jail for cartoons against the government. Additionally, members participated in the Pride events here in Stockholm. By joining, you have the ability to help choose the next campaign, in hopes of making it even better than last year. The campaigns are mainly done through artwork and provocative posters, as well as asking people to sign petitions around and outside the school. This is a group that is suitable for anyone interested in human rights and can qualify for both creativity and service for CAS, as well as a great opportunity for CAS projects.

School Newspaper

Joining the school newspaper is an opportunity to use your creative writing skills, and write about different events that go on within the school. Additionally, if you are more into speaking and presenting rather than writing, the group is planning to have a  newscast, in which you discuss the different events and happenings that occur in and around the school.  Members are assigned articles throughout the school year and expected to work to deadlines.  It qualifies as creativity for CAS.

Student Council

If you want to be able to make a difference in the DP school community, and get your ideas and opinions across, then the student council is a great way to do so. Within the student council, you can help plan and organize different events such as the Christmas Ball, as well as many other activities, throughout the duration of the school year.

Model United Nations 

Most of you probably already know what the MUN (Model United Nations) group is, seeing as it was an enrichment option in the MYP. In the DP, it is slightly different than in the MYP, as  the half an hour each week will be allocated towards planning the annual SISMUN conference which has taken place over the past 4 years. Everybody is assigned a position for the conference in order to help make it happen, and it will take place in January, where our school as well as numerous other schools from across the world will participate. In addition to this, there will be a conference in Athens, Greece for those in the MUN group who are interested in going; here, you can represent a country and debate their opinion about current global issues.

Nepal group

 The Nepal group is an option for both MYP and DP students. It is a group of students who’s goal is to connect SIS with the Shila Devi Primary School in Nepal, by organizing fundraising events, presentations and a trip once a year to Nepal. The group is divided up into four subcommittees: finances, trip planning, communications and fundraising; all of the executive decisions are made by the Nepal board. This year, the group is planning on organizing activities such as ‘Fit for Nepal’, ‘ the walk for Nepal’ and a donation drive. In doing so, they are aiming to continue to spread the word about the project.

Film club

If you are interested in film-making or acting, then the film club is a great group to join. Within the group, you can learn about different film making concepts and do not need to have any prior experience with film to be able to join. The main goal of the film club is to make different movies throughout  the year and get members to become more interested in film. Anyone can pitch an idea for a movie, regardless of their role, and everyone within the group will work on a movie idea. This year, they will be creating multiple short movies (about 2-10 minutes) and a longer movie over the year (about 15-30 minutes). They are hoping to end up with a successful product that they will be able to share with the school and upload to youtube.  You can also take a look at their promo video, as it is a good example of the kind of work they do within the group.