Fun Run

The Fun Run is an event hosted every two years in my school in order to raise money to a neighbouring neuro-disability hospital for children. Each fun run consists of children and teachers in weird and wacky costumes or sporty wear who run for five miles and a whole group of others who organise it all. This is where I came in. In order for the Fun Run to work, people are needed to supervise the event, the children while they are waiting to go, organize them into groups, and give the timings to the children of how long it took them to do the race, which is the job I shared with a few other peers. this was useful for CAS because I planned and initiated activities and worked collaboratively with others, showing perseverance and commitment whilst becoming an  a thinker, a communicator, principled and caring. The activity also engaged with issues of global importance like neuro-disability and allowed me to another way to consider the ethical implications of my actions.


My aims for this activity were to help to organize the event and participate in raising money for such a great cause. My role was to measure the timings of every child which belonged to my house: Discovery, and I aimed to do this efficiently and effectively. 

This was challenging for me because of the large amount of students which participated. When having to collect the times, a it would usually be a group coming up to he finish line and it was difficult to give each coming student their times. There was also a confusion as many children had taken off their race numbers which let us know which house they belonged to, and hence made it difficult to tell which of the senior students had to tell each of them their time. 

Participating in this was of Service because I was contributing to the Fun Run in order to help the greater cause of providing fundraising for the Children's Neuro-Disability Hospital. 

This helped me to become more aware of the different ways in which I can help and participate in campaigns and events, by knowing that it is not only the main part, like running, which is necessary for them, but also their organisation and setting up in order to actually make them reality. I completed all of my aims in this activity and enjoyed seeing the determination of the students to have fun and participate no matter what. 

Nike Training Club

During Wednesday and Friday lunch breaks, I attended the Nike Training Club at school.  its a scheme as part of the Nike training club with the National School's Partnership to improve fitness, strength and flexibility for girls only run all over London and my school is one of many where it is held for students. It is an energetic group workout adapted for young girls and each session was completely different from the next with a different focus and different exercises. Also, after every session, a stamp is provided on a sort of loyalty card. For every ten stamps we receive a Nike Training Club gift, whether it be t-shirts, bottles sweatbands, etc. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth throughout each and every session and I was always undertaking new challenges physically because I always tried to push my body in each session. I had also planned and initiate activities for the club like occasionally leading a session or certain exercises. I constantly worked collaboratively with other girls that were taking part in the club and have shown perseverance and commitment in my activities. I developed new skills like learning how to stretch and cool down properly and learning which exercises and became an inquirer, a communicator, principled, caring, a risk-taker, balanced.

This activity was challenging for me, not just because of the large amount of strenuous exercise done during the club sessions. However any form of exercise is always and should always be a challenge for one's body in order for it to have an real effect so it was an enjoyable kind of challenging. Leading sessions was also challenging because of pressure, however the girls made it easy for me to lead. 

My aims for this activity were to get fitter and healthier with this club and get all of the goodies that were on offer (which I did) and also to gain leadership skills by occasionally run a session.

This activity is CREATIVITY because in some sessions it is necessary to be creative for some activities, especially if I was running the session and created the exercises. it was also ACTION because I did a a variety of physical exercise including aerobics, cardio work outs, core workouts, etc. It was also SERVICE because of the sessions that i had run myself for the girls.

The activity will still be ongoing until the end of July 2015, however so far it is a very fun and fulfilling activity. It is a very good form of exercise and a good way to form relationships with the other girls. I have reached all of my aims so far, but I would still like to reach them to a further extent. 

Allotment

From the beginning of September 2013 I began to help a friend of my mother's to manage, design and take care of an allotment plot as she felt that it was too much work for herself alone. Together we did exactly that: first we decided what wanted to plant and planned a design for the plot so that everything was planted according to the type of plant it is and so that it is next to something that encourages its growth. Throughout the year we planted a lot of things, nearly five to ten things each month, which was very time consuming as a lot of the plants had to be initially grown in small containers at home and then put outside, whereas other plants could be planted directly outside and we had to organise which plants were which. When the lay out was set, I also helped to build a shed and a green house for the owner, amongst other structures. The outcome was great and they are still surviving despite the generous amount of rain we get in London. Every weekend until June 2014 I helped to take care of the plot which included a lot of digging, carrying bucket-fulls of water, composting, research about planting, etc. This was useful for CAS because I had increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth in agriculture. From the beginning I have been faced with new challenges and planned and initiated activities like fruit or vegetables for each season. I worked collaboratively with the owner of the allotment and other allotment owners which i would occasionally work with as well. I have shown perseverance and commitment in my activities by working in the allotment for a year and have engaged with issues of global importance like agriculture and being friendly to the environment and considered the ethical implications of my actions like growing the food organically and having this allotment to contribute to stopping transport of certain foods. Having this allotment helped me to develop new skills and to become knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, caring, a risk-taker and reflective.

This was a challenge for me because I had never before managed a plot or grown my own food. Every single day was challenging. Even just watering the plot was difficult because there was a manual water pump and I had to fill it up buckets about twenty times before watering everything. Whether I had to do digging or planting or weeding, the large scale of the plot made it very hard and also the weather decided whether it was going to be more or less difficult (which is never reliable in London). 

My aims were to learn how to garden effectively to grow both nutritious and tasty food whilst also helping the woman who runs the allotment. I also wanted to get more involved with nature and have my own piece of land as I do not have a private garden and use this to grow my own organic fruit and vegetables.




This activity was CREATIVITY because I had to set out how the crops were to grow and design a nice layout for the allotment. Also by creating and decorating structures for the plants like small support or the shed and the green house. This was also ACTION because of the large effort it takes to garden and creating these structures (boxes, a shed, a greenhouse, etc.). It was also SERVICE because I helped to run the allotment for the person who owns it as they could not handle the more strenuous activities. 

Throughout months of helping the owner of the allotment I had learnt a lot about gardening and maintaining a plot throughout different seasons, knowing what to plant at the specific months and when to harvest food. It was a very joyful, but difficult activity at times, specially when it was raining, although rain means not having to walk up and down from the manual water pump ten times. This is why everything has a sort of balance and this is the reason why I loved it so much and also because I got very in touch with nature. It was also nice to feel so satisfied that after so much work you get really great crops that taste a lot better than anything from big supermarkets. I feel that I have achieved all of my aims, however I did not want to stop  growing so I decided to grow a small vertical herb garden in my balcony for fresh cooking. I think that everyone would benefit from doing something like this simply because it increases happiness to watch something grow. Overall, I loved the satisfaction of the activity and feel that I have learned a lot from it. 

Rock Climbing

Like at the beginning of the first year of IB, our IB coordinator organised a Rock Climbing experience for my IB cohort at White Spider Climbing. this is one of the UK's newest and largest climbing centres with more than 360 routes on 104 lines, up to 20 metres on our stalactite roof, grades from 3 to 8b. It also has over 240 boulder problems, including a massive comp wall, big cave and dedicated training area, along with regular route setting from some of the biggest names in the industry. This was useful for CAS because it allowed me to increase my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth. I was also able to work collaboratively with my other peers and show perseverance and commitment by not letting go and just abseiling down the wall every time I got tired and I became a thinker, a communicator, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker and balanced.

My aims for this activity were to have a great experience at this great indoor rock climbing centre as I had only been indoor rock climbing half a dozen times before. I also was doing it as it is a fun for of exercise and to get fit, and to come together and do something entertaining with my peers after a whole summer without them. 

This was challenging for me because I had not done rock climbing for about a year before that since the Challenge and had to do a practice round to remind myself of the techniques for rock climbing and abseiling down with a partner. 

This was Active because despite it being very fun and entertaining, the harder routes (there are routes with different levels of difficulty) required a lot of strength and ability to complete.  

Overall, this was a great form of physical exercise and was very fun to participate in along with all of my classmates. I feel like I was able to reunite with them after such a long time separated through this fun activity and I would definitely like to do it again as I am a big fan of this sport and really enjoy doing it.