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3rd of November - Cookies For Humanity

On the 3rd of November, during our school's Bonfire Night, I was able to run a stall for Habitat For Humanity selling cookies. Cookies for humanity is our project that aims to raise funds in order to finance equipment that will be used during local builds and paint jobs. 

LO3: In the planning stages, I got together my fundraising committee and brainstormed potential ideas to use for Bonfire Night. We came up with a list of about 10, but due to logistics and costs we chose to sell freshly baked cookies. During the planning stages, I was able to suggests creative ideas and proposals that were eventually picked. 

LO5: As we had a few people in our fundraising and selling committee, we took shifts throughout the night and were involved with different roles. For example, I started the night with decorating our stall with posters, packaging all the cookies into paper bags for selling, then I went on to selling the cookies, to managing finance, and to walking around selling cookies. It is only fair to say that we all were willing to take different roles within a team, and this overall proved to be successful in raising funds for our chosen partner.

LO7: This experience enabled me to articulate ethical principles and approaches to ethical decisions. For instance, when marketing the product I had to make it very clear to the customers the ethical principles and objectives of selling the cookies. I told all the customers that all the proceeds would go towards financing materials to fund our builds throughout the school year. 

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As part of Wellbeing Week at BSM, the members involved with Habitat for humanity decided to build a big pledge wall. The pledge wall was a hung up white background where students from any year group, and teachers, could dip their hands into paint and make a pledge on the wall. The purpose of this was to raise awareness, and give attention to what was needed to be done to help the local Filipino community.

LO7: This activity helped us to identify what is needed to know in order to make an ethical decision. For example, by giving people the opportunity to make a pledge on our wall, we as a community are able to identify what needs to be improved or what we can do to make the ethical decision to help others. 

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24th-26th of November - BISP Soccer Sevens tournament

On the 24th of November 2017, Mr Dunstan’s team of 13 and Mr Cosgrove’s magnificent 8 travelled to Thailand, to compete into the most prestigious football 7s tournament in Asia; the BISP soccer 7s. As the tournament hosted 1600 competitors from 35 international schools, it is only fair to say that BSM punched well above its weight.

Although the girls team only had one sub, we swept through our group winning all of our games, with the highlight of beating Uplands of Penang, our eventual contender in the finals, 5 -1. We then faced 2016’s defending champions, Dulwich Beijing, in a highly competitive semi finals that saw us 1-0 down. However, with only one minute left to go, Camille’s brave tackle caused the goalie to spill the ball for Arianne to equalise and secure our place in a penalty shoot out. What they didn’t know is that we had a secret weapon - Treise Disini. She produced a flying save that confirmed our position in the finals against Uplands of Penang once again. We weren’t under too much pressure, and eventually beat them 2-0. We were champions. 

LO1: The BISP soccer 7s enabled my teammates and I to be aware of our strengths and weaknesses both as a team and as individuals. Because we were so used to playing 11 aside football, we felt like we didn’t have the techniques or experience for 7 aside, which was our weakness. We were aware that our passes were always too heavy, and unsuitable for 7 aside pitches. However, as the games went on we adapted and improved on these weaknesses to eventually become successful. In terms of strengths, my team mates and I had very good cardio vascular fitness, which was evidently better than people in other teams. Moreover, we were able to quickly pass the ball around the field which help us to win.  

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12th of August - Student Council Led New Student’s Induction Day

During the school year of year 12, myself and other student council representatives have been involved in the planning of our big event, the New Students' Induction Day.

LO1: In the planning process, I was appointed the head of team building activities. For this role, I had to organise a series of 'ice-breaking' activities that we could do for a whole hour, with about 35 new students. This was definitely a challenge for me, as it required a lot of research, organisation and planning in terms of time, space, and equipment. This activity links to the learning objective of being able to propose activities according to own interests and talents. I really enjoy sports and physical activities, therefore the ice breaking activities that I arrange involved a lot of sport for example relay races. 

LO2: This activity enabled me to achieve the learning objective of willing to become involved in unfamiliar environments and situations. This is because not until this day have I ever had to plan a morning's worth of activities for people I do not necessarily know or have met before. I have never had to lead sessions that involved ice breakers for other people to not only get to know each other, but me too.

LO3: In order to get the morning of activities to run successfully, a lot of planning, reflecting thoughts in planning and taking initiative was involved. For instance, learning from previous experiences with running activities, it is essential to have back up plans just in case activities finish early or do not work. From my past experience that I was able to reflect on, I was able to produce contingency plans of extra activities that could be used in case we had extra time to fill. In addition, I had to take initiative on the morning, as even though I had contingency plans we still finished early. Therefore I had to think on my feet and come up with activities that we could do on the spot. Lastly, since I was running the activities independently, it was very important for me to produce a coherent action plan taking into account the aim or purpose, activities and resources. Therefore, I made a document with all the activities that I planned to do, with instructions, equipment needed, time allocated etc. This was followed through thoroughly.

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Summer internship at Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines

From the 6th-15th of July, I was able to take part in a summer internship at the Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines. During this time, I shadowed many conferences and was even involved in many of the meetings. When I had the internship however, Franklin Baker was currently focusing on a current business proposal pertaining to Franklin Naker setting up a European Distribution Centre to increase its sales and market penetration in Europe. In addition, the topic of environmental policies was thoroughly discussed, as one of Franklin Baker’s manufacturing facilities in the Philippines had been recently called out for having a poo waste disposal system.

LO4: Through my internship, FB taught me the importance of being able to foresee potential challenges to the initial plan and consider valid alternatives and contingencies. For example, their situation regarding the waste disposal, we discussed collectively solutions to fix the problem without detriment the production process.

LO6: With my internship, I was easily able to recognise global implications of local issues. I realised the importance of ethical business activity, and the need to businesses to fairly treat all of its stakeholders. In turn, we discussed thoroughly solutions of how to satisfy all stakeholders concerned with the waste disposal system, and therefore is evidence that with this experience, I showed awareness of issues of global importance and we were able to plan and come up with actions in response to them.

LO7: At each meeting, the executives of Franklin Baker always identified what is needed to know in order to make an ethical decision. Our discussions revolved around ethical considerations, for instance we needed to know what the manufacturing process what impact, who is in conflict, and the feasibility of each solution before making an ethical decision. As a result of this, ethical principles and approaches to ethical decisions were always articulated. We needed to plan in terms of what actions would satisfy which stakeholder groups,and being the ethical company that it is, we always tried to find solutions that helps satisfy the needs and wants of the most number of stakeholder groups. Lastly, Franklin Baker's situation enabled me to show awareness of potential and varied consequences of choices and actions in planning. For example, when proposing solutions, we always had to reflect on the 2nd and 3rd order events, and see if it is desirable. We always had to think about the consequences of the actions we planned to implement, and were aware that different actions were able to bring different consequences.

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Summer Football Camp @ Nomads

From the 21th to the 26th of July, myself and a lot of my friends decided to take part in a football camp down at our local club, Nomads Football Club. It was a long 5 days of intense training with our coach, however at the end of it proved to be beneficial to us as we improve our skills and build stronger friendships.

LO1: After each training session, our coach would make us complete a self-evaluation form. We would always reflect on each of the specialised training sessions and how we thought we performed in it. For example, we would always have to think reflectively and think about what we could have done better, what we did well, and what we could do next time to improve. In addition to self-reflection, our coach took videos and footage of us. As a result, we were able to review these videos and analyse and critique our technique for continuous improvements.

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Stage 2: Overview and reflection

Link: https://youtu.be/W0lS8-wE9zg

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Bayanihan Group Project: El Susano Elementary School

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znSW4M31W0Q

Our Bayanihan group aims to develop a learning resource center at the Rosa L. Susano public elementary school in Novaliches. We have arranged private transport to and from the school, and can provide lunch for ourselves. Through our provision of equipment (projector, manipulative toys for special-needs students, and K-12 textbooks) and refurbishing efforts, we hope to create a sustainable, learning-friendly environment for the students. 2 out of the 3 days will be dedicated to clearing out, cleaning and refurbishing the soon-to-be resource center, and our third and final day will be spent decorating the space, ensuring that it is a safe and conducive atmosphere for the students. Our first day will be used to interact with people of the community, the children in particular, by participating in a wide range of activity such as live performances such as singing and dancing, arts and craft, and physical activity and ball games.

LO1: As a group, we were aware of our strengths and weaknesses. For example, we knew that we did not know much about assembling shelves from scratch, but we overcome this weakness by learning how to assemble a shelf a week beforehand. In terms of strength, we knew that we could efficiently work together and collaborate really well. This was evident when we sifted through 8 boxes of books to select which ones we were to use in the library. Throughout the whole process, we were open to improvement and growth opportunities, for example, our teacher recommended many changes that we made to improve our project. Through the fundraising processes, we were able to propose many activities according to our interests. For example, I was able to propose basketball free throws as a fundraiser because I love to play basketball. I was able to participate in different activities too, for example, throughout the first morning we interacted with the kids and took part in many activities such as live performances, arts and craft, physical activity etc.

LO3: Through the Bayanihan project, we are able to articulate the CAS stages including investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration moving from conceiving an idea to carrying out a plan. For instance, we needed to initially investigate what we can do to make a difference in our local community, we investigated several organisations that we could help. In terms of preparation, a lot of admin work had to be done. For example, we needed to prepare all of our equipment before arriving, and perhaps the health and safety requirements that needed to be through about. In terms of action, the project proved to be a success. The second and third day of the project proved to be very physically demanding. In this time, we cleaned out the rooms, put foam carpets, assemble shelves, lay out all the books, built the project, hung up the projector screen etc. In terms of reflection, after the project we remained in contact with the organisation. They helped us to reflect on our success as they would always tell us how the library is in use by their children etc. This project taught us how to be responsible towards CAS project planning, we all had roles that were different and needed work to be done. I had logistics head, and had to plan the logistics for my entire group for the whole 3 days. I was responsible for that area of the planning.

LO4: The project links to LO4’s outcome of, ‘gets involved in long-term CAS experiences and CAS projects’. For example, this project took about a whole year of planning and continuously revising our plans to improve it even further. In addition, after the project, we remained in contact with the people of El Susano, and even recommended it as a potential CAS project to those in the younger year groups. There is still currently a connection between my group and the school, as the regularly update us on the progress of the library. It seems to be a long-term project, and sustainable in that sense.

LO5: Throughout the project, my group mates and I were able to share skills and knowledge constantly. We were able to respectfully listen to proposals from peers.. However, we were also willing to take on different roles within the team. For example, I was initially appointed logistics head, however as the project progressed I seemed to be more involved with the financial aspects of the project and was in charge of keeping the money and fundraising. On the actual day of installation, we all took turns in different roles. Additionally, the Bayanihan project was able to help us identify, demonstrate and discuss critically the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experience. In terms of benefits, we were able to all contribute to the project and as a result, the project was always opened to continuous improvement. In terms of challenges, our collaboration was not all the time agreed on. Some of us would agree/disagree with others, and this slowed down our tasks.

LO6: LO6: Through our Bayanihan project, I am able to recognise the global implications of local issues. If education and educational facilities are not easily accessible to children, and disabled children, then there will be disruptancies in learning which is a global implications. In addition, we recognise that facilities in public institutions in the Philippines are not always the best, and therefore we show awareness of issues of global importance and took appropriate actions in response to them in our local community. We provided the school with more resources, and a safer place for learning. Lastly, the project enabled us to develop awareness and responsibility towards a shared humanity. After the project, we felt we had links and a strong relationship with the school and its students. Therefore, we delegated and suggested that current year 12s consider working alongside El Susano, as we have developed a responsibility towards a shared humanity.

LO7: We were able to recognise ethical issues, particularly with the selection of books we were intending to put in the library. For instance, we had to filter through the books and only pick the ones that would be beneficial to the children of the school. For lunch each day, we also provided food. However, due to limited funds we were only able to afford fast food. This raises unethical concerns, as fast food leads to the promotion of an unhealthy lifestyle especially for children. Lastly, we had to think about the ethical issues involved with the activities we were doing with the kids. We did a lot of activities such as ball games, arts and craft and performances, however it may be unethical in the sense some of the children were not able to do it. For example, children with ADHD did not find doing arts and craft as enjoyable as physical activity. Additionally, we are able to explain social influences on one’s ethical identity. We understand that children of the school have grown up in unfortunate situations and have disabilities, and therefore recognise that their sets of ethics and ethical identity is different to ours.

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21st of June - Inter-form water challenges

Funtime Wednesday: Water balloon fight

On the 21st of June, myself and a group of two other people were able to host an inter-form water challenge event. It was a huge competition consisting of many small inter-form water challenges, with a big water fight at the end. It took a lot of planning beforehand, however the planning seems to be all worth it as everyone took part and had lots of fun.

LO3: Although a lot of the learning outcomes can be linked to this activity, this activity has enabled me to develop a coherent action plan taking into account the aim or purpose, activities and resources. Beforehand, I needed to make a plan and send it to the teachers for approval. The plan we created was a very detailed document of the activities, risk assessment, time spent, and resources needed for each activity. The aim of the activity was to induce fun, and get everyone involved which we managed to easily do. The plan was also sectioned into activities that we did, it had instructions, resources and time that we were intending to spend on it.

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25th of April - Volunteer football refereeing

On the 25th of April, myself and a group of 3 other students were asked to help referee friendly matches involving the primary sports teams. Although I have been playing football for a very long time, I have never refereed a football game and therefore I was very nervous and excited to help out. Beforehand, I had to watch many videos of refereeing on youtube, and spent a few hours beforehand re-reading the rules of the game etc. On the day, we refereed 2x20minute matches each, and it was definitely a very valuable experience for me, as a student and a football player.

LO1: This activity links to LO1 because as a player, I was able to open myself to improvement and growth opportunities. For example, prior to refereeing I had to re look at all the rules and regulations of football this made me more aware of the game and have more knowledge about it than just being a player. It is also a different activity for me, as I would only used to only play it and not referee it. 

LO2: LO2: It was an experience that demanded appropriate personal challenge in a new experience. It was a personal challenge because for once in football, I had to make all the judgement by myself and according to what I saw even if they seem to have conflicted with other people. I had to trust what I thought I saw. As a result, I was able to acquire new skills and abilities of thinking quick and on-the-spot.

LO5: As the referee for an entire 2 games, I had a very big responsibility for participating in a group. This was because without my judgements and leadership, the game would not have gone on. I had the very important responsibility for making sure the game ran fairly.

LO7: As a referee, I knew that I was accountable for choices and actions. I knew that not everybody would have agreed with my calls, and how I viewed the game. There may have been conflicts with my calls, however, I showed that I was acceptable for the choices that I made that day. I needed to be fair, and when challenged for the calls, transparent with an actual reason. Luckily in football, bad calls are not dwelled upon, and bad choices are just moved on from and forgotten.

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3rd May - Free throw competition for Bayanihan (Fundraiser)

On the 3rd of May, my Bayanihan group and I decided to host a basketball ‘Free throw’ competition at school, in order to raise more funds for El Susano Elementary school. We needed extra funds to cover the costs of the projectors, tables, and chairs that we wanted to add to the library. With 50 pesos, people were able to 'buy' themselves 1 minute to shoot as many free throws as they can. We turned this into a house competition and offered house points as incentives to the top 5 shoots. Those that finished in the top 3 positions earned more house points and a special prize from us.

LO3: Before the launch of our fundraiser, my group and I were struggling to come up with feasible ideas that would maximise the profits that we earnt. We wanted more profits, so that more money can be spent on equipment for the new library. This activity links to LO3, and specifically, my ability to show initiative by launching a new idea or process. Not only is basketball a passion of mine, but I launched a new idea in the sense that we did not need to sell any tangible products such as food and drinks to earn money. I also thought that turning the fundraiser into a competition would benefit the community, for more community spirit and participation. It was just different to the typical fundraising activity of selling products, and on the plus side it was very fun and a lot of people seemed to enjoy the competition. This involved myself suggesting creative ideas, proposals and solutions. For example, it was intended for the fundraiser to be a competition, but through creative thinking we thought this would be a fun way to attract more people and for people to have more fun.

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1st-5th of May - Bayanihan book drive at BSM

After our visit to El Susano Elementary school, the identification of their need of a library and thorough planning, we decided to run a book drive at our school. The aim of the book drive was to collect books that we were then able to add into the library that we would be building. This proved to be a beneficial way of collecting resources, as we were limited in terms of finance and at school there were lots of books that are unused and available to us. Specifically, we we collected and asked for children's books of any level in English or Filipino, dictionaries and any kind of toys that are safe for children with disabilities.

LO3: By running a whole community book drive, we were able to articulate the CAS stages including investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstrating, moving from conceiving an idea to carrying out a plan for CAS. For instance, through our preliminary visit to the Elementary school, we were able to investigate what resources the school needed in their library. In terms of preparation, we made a list of potential items that we could bring to the library. In addition, we met with the head teacher who then gave us a list of the sort of books that they wished to have in their library. In terms of action, we had to host the book drive. We set up boxes all around our school's campus where students can drop of books that they dont use any longer. In addition, we had to sort through the books to keep the ones that are approrpaite to have, and are in good condition for addition in the library. At the end, we reflect by comparing the list given to us and what books and toys we actually recieved. This demonstrates that we have moved forward from conceiving the idea of a book drive, to actually executing a plan for it. As a result, we were also able to show responsible attitude to CAS project planning, as when we sifted through all of the books, we made sure to pick the ones that suits the needs of the children and those that are in good condition. What we collected was compared to the list given to us during the planning stages.

LO7: When sifting through the books, we knew we faced several ethical issues in the sense we were responsible of the books to be added to the library. We needed to take into consideration that the children reading the books we collected are disabled, and that we also had to be culturally sensitive to the books and resources we exposed them to. For example, we had to remove many 'teenaged chick flick' books, and have more of a focus on educational books, as children may be sensitive to the contents of the books we add to their library. This relates closely to another learning outcome, the ability to take into account cultural context when making a plan or ethical decision. Again, we had to be culturally sensitive with the children and the books we intended to expose them to. Lastly, we also realised that we needed to be aware of the consequences of choices and actions regarding self, others involved and the community. For example, would the educational books that we provided be beneficial to the children? Are they of the correct level? Are the toys appropriate for the children to play with? 

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22nd of April - Habitat for humanity build @ Bistekville 4

On the 22nd of April, a group of year 13 students including myself went to Bistekville 4 to help build houses and paint walls in the local area. As a member of the Habitat Team at school, we were required to support and participate in the activities. 

LO1: Due to the fact I've never gone a build like this before, I was exposed to a different opportunity in a completely different and new environment. Therefore, this relates to the learning outcome of being willing to participate in different activities. In addition, to support this, on the day we were split into many groups that took it in turns to do an activity. A wide range of activities were done such as cementing, painting, carrying, and passing buckets of cement up the building stairs.

LO2: As I've never done something like this before, or at least with a completely new organisation, I was involved in unfamiliar environments and situations. For example, I've never had to sand a wall in my life, and doing this alongside the local people was an unfamiliar environment for me, very enjoyable. In addition, at the beginning of the day I had no clue had to most of the manual work. However, through observations, I was able to used my newly acquired and developed skills or increased expertise throughout the day. I was able to sand walls, and come up with strategies of passing buckets of cement up a flight of stairs more efficiently.

LO5: In the middle of the build, we were all very tired of bringing buckets of cement up and down the stairs. Therefore when we reflected, I was able to make valuable contributions in the way that this strategy was improved on. For example, instead of walking up and down the stairs with heavy buckets, I proposed that we make a pass-along system that was not require too much energy. This seemed to be valuable as people got the work done quicker, and it was much easier. Also, as it was physically demanding I was always in the position to readily help others. I was able to take over with the buckets, and do jobs that perhaps other people couldn't do any longer such as carrying heavy sacks of stones and rocks.

LO6: Through my experience with Habitat for humanity, I was able to recognise global implications of local issues. In turn, I was able to recognise and identify global issues in the local or national community. In this case, I recognised the problem of poverty. I recognised that many people are unfortunate and do not have safe living conditions. In addition, the experience enabled me to show awareness of issues of global importance and takes concrete and appropriate actions in response to them either locally, nationally or internationally. In this case, we were able to physically make a difference and contribute in ways of making this issue less of a problem in our community - by physically building houses for people that are unfortunate. This also links to getting involve in CAS projects that addresses global issues in a local context, and developing awareness and responsibility towards a shared humanity, as this was not a one off project but a continuous project that requires continuos application of effort and time.

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25th of March - TEDx at the British School Manila

On the 25th of March, the British School Manila hosted the annual TEDx event. It was a day full of inspirational speakers, presentations, and a lot of admin work! I initially applied for the position of Events Director, and therefore from the onset this required a lot of planning and preparation prior to the event. Specifically, my role had the responsibility of managing most of your event's day of logistics, and responsible for creating a "TEDx experience" for guests. Throughout the day, I made sure that attendees were able to interact with each other between speaker sessions, as well as engage in activities. I also helped to arrange the gift bags the day before.

LO2: TEDx helped me to acquire new skills and abilities. For example, on the day of the event there were many unforeseen problems that I had to deal with. This enabled me to be more flexible within my plans, and think 'on-the-spot' for the problems that I encountered. In addition, it helped me to become a better listener. Due to the fact the speaker were all very motivational and inspirational, I was very interested in their speeches and took a lot of their advice on board.

LO3: Through the organisation, planning and execution of plans in TEDx, I was able to become aware of the roles and responsibilities required when designing a CAS experience. For example, months prior to the event, students including myself had to apply for leadership positions. I chose to apply for the Event Director position, as I knew I had the organisation and skills to benefit the event. This made me realise the importance of having different roles and people working within their specialised area to achieve the same common goals. 

LO4: On the day of the event, there were many unforeseen problems that I didn't plan for in the planning stages. This relates to the learning outcome of being able to demonstrate adaptability to uncertainties and changes. For instance, we arranged on the programme for guests to arrive at a certain time. However, we found that many guests were there early and therefore we had to plan activities on the spot for the guests while waiting for the main event to change. In addition, in the middle of the day, I received an email from the school's operation team saying that there will be a fire drill - in the middle of the speeches. We had to adapt to this, and go and see operations to postpone the drill.

LO5: As we were present during the speaker's speeches, we were able to listen carefully to everyone. Therefore, through this I am able to demonstrate that I am able to show respect for different points of views and ideas. I was able to appreciate the speakers' ways of thinking, even if it differed to the way I thought about things. In addition, because I was an events director, I had to make sure everything on the day ran as smoothly as it could. This therefore involved me readily assisting others. For example, in the middle of the event I had to readily assist my team mates in taking care of the presentations downstairs, organising the speakers and buying gifts prior to the event.

LO7: Through TEDx, I was able to explain social influences on one's ethical identity. The speakers were able to share their turbulent upbringings in relation to their future success stories, and this made me realise that there are many social influences that may affect one's ethical identity.

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Student Council Meetings - Series of experiences

Since the beginning of Year 8, I have been an active member of the student council at school. Every Tuesday afternoon, we meet up and discuss proposals that we wish to implement. Student council representatives include one members of each form per year group.

LO1: As a student body and committee, we always discuss our strengths and weaknesses in terms of what is going well in school and perhaps what needs improvement. Therefore we are open to growth and opportunities to improve student life for students at BSM. We constantly propose activities according to our own interests, such as fundraising like roses and serenades.

LO2: LO2: As we rely on communication, the student council has helped me increased expertise in an established area. Specifically, it has enabled me to improve my communication skills, as we are always proposing ideas, inventing solutions and communicating our meeting minutes to our classes.

LO4: Throughout my 6 years of participation in the student council, I have been able to demonstrate my regular involvement and active engagement. This is because, every Tuesdays we have to attend meetings to discuss problems, proposals and solutions. This is a long term project, as a lot of our projects take place throughout the school year.

LO5: LO5: As the student council rely on communication between peers, students and teachers we are able to share our skills and knowledge with each other during meetings. We listen to proposals from peers, and vote whether the proposals can take place; as a result we show respect for different viewpoints and ideas. In addition to this, I have had to make valuable contributions to the group. For example, I was able to help contribute to our planned event of a New Student Induction day, and help plan the day.

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17th-21st of February - Bayanihan planning and visit

Since the launch of the Bayanihan Project in the beginning of the school year, my group became heavily involved in the planning stages of our project. Every Tuesday morning, we would meet and discuss plans and proposal of what we were going to do. Through the planning stages, we had to plan out the itinerary of each day, what activities we will be doing, who is involved, and safety and risk assessments. This process was very time consuming and involves the efforts from all the members of the group. During this time, we also planned our initial and preliminary visit to the elementary school we are working with. This is to ensure that our project of building a library is appropriate. The preliminary visit also helped us plan in terms of resources needed, meet with people we would be involved with, and help to think and observe other ways in which we can help.

LO1: With our visit, we were able to actually see what was needed to be done at the elementary school. In addition, we were open to suggestions from the people there and therefore were open to improvement and growth opportunities. In addition, when evaluating the school we were aware of our strengths and weaknesses as a group. For example, when we were told that the school needed shelves, we were aware that we did not have the skills to make shelves and that was our weakness. But we were able to propose activities relating to our actual project week that was in our own interest. In this case, we proposed arts and craft for our interaction day as we all really enjoyed arts.

LO3: The preliminary visit to the area involved lots of planning beforehand. We needed to plan our transport, our food, and what we intended to get done. Therefore, this relates to the outcome of being able to articulate the CAS stages including investigation, preparation, action, reflection (on going) and demonstration, moving from conceiving an idea to carrying out a plan. We planned all the admin and manual work beforehand, planned questions to ask the people there, and had action plans beforehand to get approved when we arrived. In addition, this made us integrate reflective thought in planning or taking initiative. For example, after our preliminary visit, we had more knowledge and made many amendments to our original plan. For example, we were intending to install air cons in the library, but due to costs and practicalities we were not in control of, we had to divert away from this plan. After the visit, we took observations in to count, and constantly updated our initial plan in accordance our group reflection sessions at the end.

LO4: With the planning involved for our CAS project, we had to demonstrate regular involvement and active engagement with CAS. It is obviously a very large project, that involves a lot of time and extensive planning. In addition, our regular involvement and active engagement is seen through our meet ups every Tuesday morning to discuss plans. In addition, with the planning stages we had to foresee potential challenges. We had to amend our initial plan, and have back up plans just in case they were unsuccessful. For example, when we visited there was a brownout that limited our plans. We had to divert away from the initial plans, and use our contingency plans. Therefore, we used our time wisely and took measurements of the room for the equipment we are going to install. Then when the electricity came back on, we were able to evaluate the room properly, see if their smart boards worked, and fans etc. Lastly, since this project started at the beginning of year 12 and lasted until the end of the year, it is evidence that we were involved in long-term CAS experiences. In addition, we didn't want this project to be a 'one-off' thing, and therefore we planned to sustain the project and relationship we had with the school. We did this by recommending this organisation to the year 12s, so the project can be continued. This shows long-term involvement.

LO5: With the planning stages, we had to share our skills and knowledge. For example, because some of us didn't go to the initial visit, we had to advice other team members of what we observed and what needed to be done. As a result, we had to listen to each other respectfully and respect their proposals, as we were constantly amending our plan. We can also relate to the learning outcome of being willing to take different roles within a team. For example, I was initially appointed head of logistics, however as the project progressed, we were all involved in every role. For example, I wrote some of the health and safety elements of the plan; all of our jobs were interdependent and we all helped each other with it.

LO6: The initial visit enabled me to develop awareness and responsibility towards a shared humanity. Before this visit, I did not know much about the current issues. For example, I did not know there are many schools around the Philippines that severely lack resources for children. Due to this visit, we all felt like we had a big responsibility to help out, and transform the school in benefit of the children attending. We all felt we had a responsibility to finish the project. 

LO7: In terms of planning for our Bayanihan project, we had to think that we are accountable for choices and actions. For example, if we decide to install air cons, fans, smart boards we will be accountable of whether they are installed successfully and/or they are used appropriately by the members of the school. Lastly, through the planning stages we showed awareness of the potential and varied consequences of choices and actions in planning and carrying out CAS experiences. We considered questions such as what will our plans do? How will our plans impact the community, and are our plans feasible?  

[kylagibsoncas-blog]

15th of February - RIFA Football Semi Finals VS Assumption College

After topping the group of our RIFA football league, we were due to face last year’s defending champions, Assumption College in the semi finals. Fortunately for us, our trainings paid off and we were able to put into practice what we learnt in training to beat Assumption College and proceed to the finals.

LO1: As a team we were aware of our strengths and weaknesses. At half time, our coach would get us in a circle, and we would reflect on what we did well and what we could have done better or will do better in the second half. We were aware that our strengths we're passing and clearing the ball from defense, but for the next half we agreed that we needed to press them more to put them under pressure. Because of this, we we're open to improvement and growth opportunities in the form of advice from our coach.

LO2: We had to participate in experiences that demanded appropriate personal challenge. Everybody in the football team has a specific role or position. I play in centre midfield and therefore my objectives are different to other people on the team. I found my role personally challenging, as I had to close opponent down in the centre and create plays while trying to actively recover. I was tired throughout, and this proved to be a great personal challenge to keep going until the end of the game.

LO5: LO5: During half time, we all collaborated and advised each other on what we could do differently as a team and individuals. Therefore this experience taught us how to share our skills and knowledge, at the same time as listening respectfully to proposal from peers. In my case, I learnt that I had to play more defensive, and in the second half I took those advice 'on board'. I shared respect for different point of views and ideas.