LO3- 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.

LO7:  Recognise and consider the ethics implications of choices and actions. Ethics are the moral principles that govern or influence our conduct. Ethics are the basis for what we determine to be the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ course of action. Students show awareness of the consequences of choices and actions in planning and carrying out CAS Experiences.

LO6: 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.

In light of the recent events that have taken place with Sarah Everard, the conversation about sexual harassment has erupted, prompting students in our school to have discussions, educate others and share their experiences. As this occurs, the amount of misinformation and hidden dismissal of issues such as “not such a big deal” or “just a girl problem”, which is where the problem stems from. The mindset that this large social issue that has been ingrained in society isn’t something that men have to care about or that boys don’t need to pay attention to suggests is the problem, and unfortunately, is the mindset that many of the individuals in our school have. To try and address this issue that has long been overlooked has been something the SV has been trying to achieve this year. Lavanya and I sent an email to Mr. Sweeting (head of PSE) to propose reform to the PSE curriculum or certain things that we feel should be addressed and done differently. We have a meeting set up, and hope to achieve some tangible progress. As a representative of the Grade 11 student body, we feel it is our responsibility to address issues we see embedded in our grade that are not perceptible immediately.

After our meeting with Mr. Sweeting, we have decided on a mentor time session in which we can address this issue away from only being a “PSE” topic, but to show that these issues need to be addressed NOW. Lavanya and I have put together a document for what we hope to address during that session, and have a meeting with Mr. Sweeting to comment on it and hopefully approve it so it can go ahead.

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.

For medical society in order to run for chair, we had to prepare a presentation as well as run a mock session for the people in the club. This was to see how well we could manage the group and take responsibility. Anaya and I ran as a pair and we created slides in which we did a mock of MMI stations and asked them to discuss amongst themselves. We also then went on a discussion about euthanasia, debating the pros and cons and why it may be illegal in some places and legal in others. Planning this activity meant we had to reflect on what we enjoyed as members this year, as well as think about what we could improve on and what we would like to see more of. This was a great way to take ownership of our learning and build and develop our leadership skills as well. This was definitely already building off on all the other leadership experiences I’ve already had such as chair of student voice and chair of my GC, but being chair of a society is slightly different because you are all trying to actively LEARN about something, which I am not an expert on either. I’m excited for the results and if we have the opportunity to be chair, I’m keen to see where this learning journey takes us!

Learning Outcome #5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively. Students are able to identify, demonstrate and critically discuss the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experiences.

In the Musical Showcase experience, I’ve gotten the chance to collaborate with people I normally don’t have the chance to talk to very often. We were able to collaborate to help each other through processes such as getting miced, revising choreography and coming up with new solutions if blocking was not working out. Collaboration was the key to ensuring that the performance came together, because we had to be able to improvise or work with each other if something didn’t go as planned. Trusting one another enough was something we built up as a result of working since the beginning of september on this performance together. The musical showcase devising process also required some of us to take ownership of the process. Ayoni and I proposed some blocking, some of which that worked out and others that didn’t. This was something I found slightly challenging because it was a bit daunting putting myself out there in front of everyone, but I learned that everyone appreciates when you make an attempt to help out, and it’s an added bonus if it actually works!

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. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process.

As our event approaches, we’re having to plan for how it’s going to work, not only the broader picture and how we can engage the school community effectively, but how we can logistically ensure the process runs as smooth as possible. I have planned experiences before for SV and therefore it is not a completely new experience for me, however, planning something this large is definitely a challenge and pushing me out of my comfort zone. In addition, it is a brand new event and thats never been done before, thus setting realistic expectations can prove to be a bit harder as we don’t know what the general event will look like.

It is a tendency of Shreya and mine to just plan all the materials ourselves and work individually without involving/depending on our GC members, thus we’ve had to make a conscious effort in trying to involve all the GC members and delegating responsibilities amongst them. Being a good leadership is a skill that I think even many adults haven’t even wrapped their head around, and so expecting a completely smooth journey will be unrealistic. However, we both are trying to involve others more, work on our communication and improve community spirit!

Shreya and I plan to call atleast a few times during the break to ensure we hit the ground running as soon as we get back from school. It will be quite tight to book all the equipment, send all the emails, make all the promotional materials so soon, and thus working over the break will be essential. I foresee us getting too caught up in the details and forgetting to get people excited about the event and marketing it right. Thus, this is something to be conscious about.

LO2- “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.”

This year’s Musical Showcase requires me to develop and push my comfort levels when it comes to performing and devising a musical, as it is a lot more student-led than I anticipated. However, this allows me to build on the devising skills that I started to develop during IGCSE in drama. This musical definitely pushes me because I will be playing a lead character in one of the musicals, and therefore being fully committed to the role in front of a live audience will be challenging, however, it will hopefully come a bit easier after lots of practice performing in drama last year. I  think because of the nature of this production, it requires us to try lots of things and see what sticks. As a result, I think I have been pushed to try and develop the ability to be comfortable with uncertainty – something that creates a lot of stress for me. I believe this risk-optimizer mindset can prove to be useful in other aspects of my life.

LO1- Identify their 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.

This week in Bersama, we recorded “light in the hallway” which is a song that we’ve been working on for quite a bit of this term. It requires a lot of work with harmonies. Harmony work used to be quite tricky for me when I first joined bersama because all the seniors seemed to know what they were doing, however, after around a year of working with these amazing singers, I’ve learned to pick up and use my “ear” to find the harmonies in the songs. This is definitely a skill I want to improve on, and I am nowhere near close to being “comfortable” with it – however I see progress and this is what matters!

Doing bersama in the COVID situation has been quite tricky as for the first half, we could not even rehearse in the same room together! We had to come up with creative ways, such as each individual being plugged into different headsets from different rooms and singing through that. The regulations pushed us to challenge the conventions of how bersama runs and to push our limits – to what extent could we still collaborate effectively and improve our overall sound despite the challenges?

I look forward to continuing to improve our sound with more practices and working on my individual harmony work, as well as ability to sight-read.

LO7- “Recognise and consider the ethical implications of choices and actions. Ethics are the moral principles that govern or influence our conduct. Ethics are the basis for what we determine to be the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ course of action. Students show awareness of the consequences of choices and actions in planning and carrying out CAS experiences.”

Medical Society is a really great place to debate and ponder on ethical issues that are frequently encountered by doctors on a daily basis. For example, not providing treatment to a patient because they don’t give consent, even though the treatment will improve their condition is the “ethically correct” thing to do, even though this may completely contradict the moral obligations doctors have to do everything they can to treat their patients. We talked through the ethics pillars of medicine:

1. Autonomy –> patient/guardian should give consent
2. Beneficience –> must benefit the patient
3. Non-Maleficience –> do no harm
4. Justice –> doing what’s best for society as a whole and stay within legal boundaries

Using these pillars to guide your decision-making was something new I learned. I realised the multiple facets that doctors must examine almost subconsciously before making a decision: not only the scientific medical advice, but the emotional support, ethics, cost and legalities.

I’m excited to learn more about the challenges and rewards that doctors must face during their career!

L05: “Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively. Students are able to identify, demonstrate and critically discuss the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experiences.”

On the 22nd of October, from 11am-2pm, Student Voice organised a second orientation – this time for the students who had just gotten off SHN and who are going to be joining us after the mid-term break! Alongside my vice-chair Lavanya, we were able to collaborate and plan an itenerary for a fun half-day of activities that we believed would be a good way to get to know the new students and ease them into social circles here at East. In the past, we have worked incredibly well together so planning the orientation was not much of a hassle in that sense. However, it was slightly challenging because we did not know the full details till around 2 days before (logistics, equipment available etc), so it really meant that we had to be efficient and think on our feet. Since Lavanya and I had planned a similar orientation during summer, this time we had a bit more experience and knew how to involve the Student Voice members. We almost got too carried away again by doing all the work ourselves, but I remembered that everyone in Student Voice signed up to be there, and have valuable inputs to offer. Therefore, I asked for inputs on a collaborative document for ideas about potential games, ice-breakers, as well as asking them to find out the instructions and write them down. Not only did this help alleviate some of our workload, but I believe through this collaboration we achieved a more inclusive planning process.

In terms of the actual day itself, collaboration was KEY as we had requested all SV members to help us set up the tracks (even though we hadn’t fully come up with what we wanted the tracks to look like!) People came together, took initiative and helped set up the equipment which made the orientation successful. In addition, a few people were asked to run the stations (the games) themselves. This required prior engagement with how the game worked, but also required leadership and effective communication skills. Without our SV members, our orientation would have crumbled, so effective collaboration was HIGHLY necessary!

Overall, a very successful orientation, and carried out with ease due to my amazing vice chair, head of grade and SV members + volunteers 🙂

LO1- “Identify their 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.” 

• What previous experience have I had with an activity like this?
• What am I good at? What are my strengths?
• What would I like to improve?
• How has my involvement in this activity made me aware of my strengths and areas for growth?
• Have I improved and in what areas? How do I know?
• Why have I struggled in some areas?

I have been in the musical AIDA in Grade 9 – two years ago now, which I immensely enjoyed. It combined my love for singing with my interest in theatre, and it’s grandeur never ceased to amaze me. Therefore, I knew I wanted to do the musical this year. I know that due to my 4 years in vocal training, some of my strengths are that I can sing well and use techniques in order to improve the quality of the sound. Having said that however, I am surrounded with others who are equally, if not more talented than me, and I’ll always have something to learn from them. I think I would like to be able to become more comfortable around them to make mistakes and try to improve myself. Breaking out of my comfort zone and making new friends is one of my goals and ways that I feel I can improve after reflecting on my time in AIDA in grade 9.