Introduction

"Making A Difference"

South Island School wants its members to take sustainable action to "Make A Difference" within its own community, the local community and chosen global communities to make an impact on the lives of others and their own.

To build the culture we want...

There needs to be a coordinated approach to meeting the demands of such a large and diverse community.

These include

• the students' wishes to help others all the time
• authentic learning curriculum initiatives
• external requests
• the expectations of the IB CAS system

and ultimately what is just the

"right thing to do".

The Learning Aims

That students have the opportunty to:

• grow as compassionate and aware citizens, learning from their own MaD experience through ongoing participation and reflection
• make connections to their local community and beyond
• make a difference to others and themselves
• participate in a range of creative, action and service activities (CAS)
• participate regularly
• challenge themselves

The Houses

Each of the Houses within a Family have now committed to an overarching concept to which they will attach their MaD efforts:

The Curriculum

We want our curriculum to be authentic and purposeful and through specific enquiry based projects and Enrichment Programmes in each of the year groups we hope to develop skills that will enable individuals to be able to take initiate, plan and take action independently. With the end result when students get to Year 12 & 13 they can complete their Diploma CAS project.

• Yr 7 & 8 integrated into a service learning culture
• Yr 8 Humanities: Injustice
• Yr 9 Learning Futures: Oxfam Christmas Challenge
• Yr 10 Learning Futures: Fare Trade
• Yr 11 Learning Futures: CAS Introduction Project
• Yr 12 & 13: CAS

‘SIS goes MaD’

This week is intended to allow students to enrich their experiences and broaden their horizons and each of the activities speaks to the philosophy above.

The week is usually in late October, early November and has different activities for different Year groups:

• Year 7          Go to Lantau and have a week long CAMP
• Years 8-10   Have a choice of activities based here in Hong (Local) or overseas (Global)
• Year 11        Complete work experience
• Year 12        Go to mainland China or Africa to support the core of their Diploma
• Year 13        An opportunity for leadership on Yr 8-10 trips, independent CAS activities or independent study