LO3-Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience. Students can articulate the stages from conceiving an idea to executing a plan for individual or collaborative CAS experiences. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience or by launching a new idea or process.

LO4-Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences. Students can articulate the stages from conceiving an idea to executing a plan for a CAS experience or series of CAS experiences.

The planning stage of my project week experience was by far the hardest and most rewarding experience of this year. The most important thing I realised about myself and PW was how the real project week experience isn’t necessarily that one week when we go on a trip, but the entire process of designing, organising and planning is the actual project week experience. My group and I went through multiple rough moments and all of those resulted in opportunities for growth and skill development.

In all honesty, there were moments where nothing would have made me happier than giving up and admitting defeat in the face of challenges.  It was hard, finding time to focus and sort all the components of our trip. It took us a while, all of us in the group to truly come to terms with the roles that we had assigned to ourselves.

I was committed to making sure that this experience was the best we could have done with the challenges we were facing. The role I took on in the group was more of a moral mediator where I kept up the thoughtful rationalisation of the decisions we were making and ensuring that all of us could see both sides of the argument. This was very important since a lot of the challenges we faced were quickly followed by emotional outbursts by various members and long moments of panic and stress accompanying the usual stress and panic of school life without project week. Throughout the entire five months, I made sure to keep my teammates calm and prepared to face the challenges of project week.

During the week we had to endure about 7 hours of tiring work every day. We mixed soil, transplanted saplings and potted an astonishing 666 baby trees! Behind the success of our project was how we supported each other and encouraged ourselves to work until the end and see the project until the very end. Our project week was not ideal, it was hard, annoying and tiring but we as a group made it work, we worked hard and we worked together and we made sure that our week was an incredible week.

Even though we ended up staying in Singapore for our trip the overall experience was incredibly rewarding and I learned and gained a lot of insight from it. The most important piece of advice I would have would how you don’t need a pretty hotel, breathtaking views or a flight to make a project worthwhile, you need your teammates, your endurance and your optimism even if things don’t always seem to go the right way.