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Service Learning

  • Service Learning

What does Service Learning look like in reality?

Arguably the biggest selling point of the CP is its flexibility and every school globally creates a programme suited to their context; there is not a one size fits all approach. When it comes to developing Service Learning, who knows the opportunities that lie in the local and global community for students? We cannot dictate the projects they create. Best to see examples of how Service Learning is done around the world and what fellow practitioners have learnt from their experiences. Read on for top tips for Service Learning success.

What is Service Learning?

You may be approaching this element of the core as someone who is familiar with Service Learning as your school has had a CAS programme as part of the DP in your school. Or you may be approaching this new to the CP completely. Either way, you will want to create a Service Learning programme that stands out in your context. Like it's family in the core - the Reflective Project and Language Development - students must devote at least 50 hours to Service Learning across their two year course. When planning for Service Learning, you will want to enable students to develop and apply skills and knowledge to:

- meet an authentic community need following their own initiative
- see Service Learning as, to state the obvious, learning through service - both words are crucial
- encourage leadership through problem-solving and collaboration
- be caring and responsible members of a community that can respond to the needs of others
- be able to reflect about their experiences so they get a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them
- identify the links with other elements of the core and their CP course which serves to enhance their school experience.

Connecting the core

  Rarely do I get so carried away with icons but it is a good moment to reflect upon how much of the Service Learning aims
a) would help develop skills for students to flourish in other parts of their studies
b) are also present in other elements of the CP

Be patient but committed!

Not all these connections are made overnight. And it is not down to you as teachers to make all these connections - what you are doing is creating the environment for students to be able to make connections between their courses. This happens in the planning of your course through teacher collaboration but also through continued discussion between teachers and with students as the course develops.

CP Perspectives: Taking Service Learning online

Le Bocage International School (LBIS), Mauritius

Globally, educators have found themselves having to adapt more than ever over the last few years. Namrata Gujadhur, the CP Coordinator at Le Bocage, International School, tells us how she, and her team of dedicated teachers and students, have navigated the Service Learning course during the last 2 years and the adaptations made in such difficult circumstances. No doubt this is typical of many wonderful CP schools around the world.

Le Bocage International School (LBIS), Mauritius

'At Le Bocage International School (LBIS), we have some cardinal principles that we abide by and our main motto is to Learn, Build, Innovate, and Succeed, by nurturing innovative & holistic leaders for a changing world. It is almost unquestionable that the COVID-19 pandemic has eclipsed the lives of one and all. Different individuals have felt its effects at varying intensities depending on their status, place, and condition. This perhaps undesirable condition of the globe has pushed Service Learning at Le Bocage to discover dimensions that otherwise would have been left veiled. 

 

Students have engaged in exhaustive research in finding NGOs, communicating and collaborating with them in order to develop online platforms through which these NGOs may reach out to a larger audience and accordingly dispense help to those in need. 

 

Beyond students under the guidance of teachers, initiated a “Bigs and Littles Programme” through which they mentored the younger and new students of the school, online. The intent for this activity was to allow the new students to familiarise themselves with the people and culture of the LBIS community as otherwise they would have been deprived of this opportunity due to the lockdown imposed soon after schools resumption in January. 

 

Students have wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to manufacturing masks, created ebook on nature’s cure for healthy living, organized food drives for the homeless, hosted online fitness, stretching and Zumba sessions, initiated a lockdown solidarity campaign with the Rotary club, etc. They also created digital brochures, and posters to raise awareness in view of the significance of abiding by the COVID-19 protocol suggested by the local government for the safety and benefit of all'

with huge thanks to Namrata Gujadhur

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