Coronavirus Update from our Head of School - Jerry Salvador

With the ongoing challenges posed by the Coronavirus outbreak we are continuing to monitor the situation and to make contingency plans for the possible impacts of the virus in our community. We know that you, like us, are hoping that our extended Brookes family are keeping safe and well around the world. As the situation is changing rapidly, and there is a great deal of uncertainty, we are considering the possible scenarios that may play out in the coming weeks. We will be sending out a comprehensive update next week that will give more details on the plans we are putting in place to mitigate any impact on the operations of the school. Please note that the school will not be open over Spring Break as students from affected regions have made alternative arrangements to remain in our region. Thank you for your support and patience during this complex time.

A Message from VP of Academics - Linda Bayes

Spring has arrived (at last) and teachers are taking full advantage of the improving weather to get out into our stunning natural environment with their classes. This week Grade 6 students explored Charlie’s Trail , Grade 9 students traveled to East Sooke Park to collect data for T-Tests (see photo above), Grade 6, 7 and 8 visited the Juan de Fuca playground and playing fields, Grade 9 and 12 continued their service project at a local nursing home, and the Roots and Shoots after school activity group spent time at an orchard in Metchosin to learn how to graft trees. These are just some of the outdoor opportunities students have enjoyed this week.

After School Activities with Mr Brad Rudner

The last day of ASAs for term 2 is Tuesday, March 10th. There will be no ASAs or supervision for the Wednesday through to Friday in the final week prior to Spring Break.

We will be launching the sign up for term 3 ASAs next week with 47 different activities including a variety of new options - stand-up paddle boarding, coding, tennis, nature journaling and more. By providing early sign up for next term, I hope to be able to have all students placed in their ASAs with this showing on their ManageBac timetable by the beginning of spring break. Term 3 ASAs will officially begin the week of April 6th to 10th.

The students are expected to complete their choices and sign up prior to the end of day on Friday, March 6th. This term we will be utilizing QR codes and an online sign-up form that will give students direct, live access to each activity’s enrollment. The list of ASAs and the weekly schedule will be accessible on ManageBac – similarly to previous terms – for parents and students to reference as of next week.

Grade 9 Math with Mr Tim Snieder

On a beautiful sunny morning, the grade 9 math students ventured to East Sooke Park to carry out a field study. Our goal was to answer the question: does barnacle size relate to their distance from the water line? To answer this question, the students needed to visit the beach during low tide. Working in pairs, they carefully collected measurements which they would later analyze in class by carrying out a t-test, a statistical tool for deciphering a difference between two sample means. Despite the tempting distraction of a very fun rope swing, all groups managed to collect their data, leaving some time for exploring the many other organisms that inhabit the tide pools.

2020 Math Challengers Competition

On February 21st, fifteen students participated in the 2020 Regional Math Challengers competition at Camosun College. There were two grade 8 teams, one grade 9 team, and a grade 10 team. The competition consisted of two individual and one team stages that tested students’ mathematical and problem-solving skills. With names like “Blitz” and “Bull’s Eye”, students knew they were in for something intense. All students had an opportunity to practice the types of questions in advance of the competition, so many of them knew what to expect. The event climaxed with the “Face-Off” where the top scoring students from all schools went head to head in an elimination round.

Though many of our students were new to the competition, they gave it their best. Congratulations to Michelle Mietla, Cameron Rancher and Holmes Yu, who took home top honours for Brookes in each grade. Our grade 9 team (Brandon, Cameron, Coen and Phu Minh) came in third overall in the peer competition. The superstar of the competition was Holmes, who placed fourth overall in the grade 10 group, and managed a well-fought lead to place second in the Face-Off stage. Well done!!

Special kudos to our youngest participant, Sophie Wilson. She was too young to compete with the team, but she wanted to come and share the experience with us. Her afternoon was not without excitement. The organizers quickly discovered her willingness to help out, and she was shuttled off to a room to help the rest of the volunteers mark tests as they came in. We are sure that Sophie will make a great addition to the team next year!

The students had a wonderfully enlightening experience and many of them are keen on participating again next year. Naturally, their Math teachers are very proud of their efforts and enthusiasm to take a risk and try something new. Way to show the IB spirit!

Art Club with Ms Eva Campbell and Mr Ben Higham

The Art after school activity is a great way for the students to take their time to cultivate their creative talents. What makes this club unique is the students don’t just have a chance to grow artistically but also help out locally!

The Art club is routinely having art sales at lunch hours in the dinning hall! These art sales are great ways for the students to be proud of their creations and to help out with local worthy causes. All proceeds collected from the sale of artwork go towards a local non profit association to rehabilitate sick and abandoned dogs.

Come take a look at our next sale and as the temperature warms we may take our sale to local farmers markets. The Art club: expanding creativity and helping the community!

Pink Shirt Day

We celebrated Pink Shirt Day this week with a Community Block presentation on the theme of “Lift Each Other Up”; a simple but powerful message encouraging us to look beyond our differences and celebrate the things that make us unique. When we lift each other up, we see past the things that separate us and see instead the things that unite us as people.

"This Pink Shirt Day, and every day, let’s Lift Each Other Up."

What is J K Rowling's middle name? If you know the answer....

Friday March 6th is Quiz Night at Brookes!

We are inviting everyone - staff, students and parents - to put together a team of 5 and come along to Brookes to battle it out for the title of Brookes Trivia Team of 2020.

There will be prizes!

Why not test your knowledge against the best Brookes has to offer? It is sure to be a fun evening of laughter and friendly competition!

You can join us for dinner from 5 pm to 6 pm or just come along for the Quiz starting at 6.30 pm. There will be rounds of questions on topics ranging from music, film, geography, sports, and much more.

Let me know if you are ready to take on the challenge!

James

jb oxshall@westshore.brookes.org

Spring Fling: Friday April 3rd, 3:30-6:30

It’s been a long, hard, winter, but don’t fret, spring is on the way!

What better way to welcome the spring season than to enjoy some live outdoor music and a BBQ with friends and family. On Friday April 3rd we will have the talented musicians from the band ‘Summer Rain’ and the solo musician Jill Cooper play for our community in the school courtyard.

If you would like more information on these musicians, you can check out their websites here:

https://www.musicsummerrain.com

https://www.jillcoopermusic.com

Families are welcome to join in on the event. Day students, teachers and families wanting to come to this event, please RSVP here so we know how many people will be joining us for the BBQ. Please submit your RSVP by the 10th of March as the kitchen needs notice to prepare.

International Week: Monday April 14th- April 17th

International week is coming this April! This will be a week-long celebration of different cultures and a wonderful way to learn about diversity.

We will have lunchtime activities, international lunches, community block presentations and a talent show to end off the week. Each advisor group will be choosing a different country to represent and preparing a lunchtime activity, an act for an international talent show or a small presentation for the community block.

If students would like to do something on their own, or in a group outside of their advisor group, we would be thrilled to have them participate as well. Students, please contact asalvador@westshore.brookes.org of you would like to sign up for this event.

Senior Boys Basketball

Last weekend the Sr Boys Basketball team competed at the Island Championships, hosted at Nanaimo Christian school! Participating at the Island play-offs is a huge accomplishment - this is the first time a team from Brookes has made it to the Islands!

Our first game was against the host team, Nanaimo Christian School. The gym was packed with fans and the environment was intense! Nanaimo Christian started the game strongly, hitting all of their first shots. Once our boys got their nerves out, our shots started falling and we battled hard the entire game. We closed the gap but the Nanaimo team's offence was too fierce for us to pull off the win.

We then beat Gaglardi school and advanced to the quarter finals on Saturday morning. We played against the tough Maaqtusiis school from Flores Island, which is off of the coast of Tofino. The winner of this game would move on and play for the bronze medal. This game was a nail-biter for all four quarters both teams were neck and neck until the final seconds. Maaqtuiis were quick, smart and aggressive! Their cuts and drives to the hoop were strategic and hard to defend. However, our rebounding and defence was unstoppable and our effort was intense! With two minutes left we were down by three points! Unfortunately, this game ended in an emotional loss. During this game, Rainy scored 46 points, an Island record and earned the number one performance of the weekend! Maaqtusiis ended up in third place at the end of Islands and challenged the second place team, Duncan Christian. Maaqtusiis ended up beating out Duncan and they have now moved onto Provincials!

After our hard loss on Saturday morning, we played for 5th place against Gold River. Tony Chen was our head coach for the entire game. He made substitutions, called time outs, changed our defensive tactics and ran our strategic offence. His knowledge and enthusiasm held strong for the forty minutes of basketball. This resulted in our win of the season, and a 100% win record for Coach Tony!

We had an incredible weekend of basketball filled with teamwork, determination, perseverance and hard work! Player of the game awards went to Ernest Chueng for continually controlling the pace of the games, Diego Felgueres Arevalo for being a rebounding king and Rainy Xu who was unstoppable! Coach Aija and Michaela are very impressed with how these boys played all season and we couldn’t be more proud of this team! We are looking forward to next year already!

IB Service Project Update

Each grade level is required to participate in a service project that is linked to their curriculum in some way. Grade 11 and 12 students projects are more individualized as part of their Diploma Programme. The service projects for the MYP students planned for this year are:

Grade 10 students will be planning and developing learning activities centered on Earth Day in April,
Grade 9 students will volunteer at a local nursing home,
Grade 8 students are planning a project focused on cultural diversity and international mindedness,
Grade 7 students are planning an environmentally focused project,
Grade 6 are building a community garden.

Sustainable Food and Design with Mr Ben Higham

To be a responsible global citizen means to take account of your impact on the world. By recognizing any negative impact you may have you can begin to understand where to make small changes that can make a positive difference. Sustainable living means living with minimal negative impact to the environment and students are finding their own paths to sustainable living by focusing on food.

Sustainable foods are foods that do not negatively impact the environment in their production or consumption. Examples of sustainable foods are foods that are grown or produced and then consumed locally. Local fruits, vegetables, and legumes are great examples of sustainable food categories.

MYP 1 Design students are in the process of developing their own sustainable foods recipe guides to showcase what they have learned. By following the Design Cycle and recognizing their individual approaches to learning, students are able to research and test out different recipes before adding them to their own guides.

Students are baking, frying, cooking and chopping to produce the best sustainable meals they can with their fellow students ready to give honest opinions on flavors! When completed, these guides will be useful for anyone in the community to live more sustainable lifestyles. Bon appétit!

Ms Melanie Moroz - Middle Years Program Coordinator

I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba – home to bitterly cold winters and sunny hot summers. Alumni of the University of Manitoba, I obtained my Bachelor of Science and my Bachelor of Education before I started my professional career. I spent my first years working at a small school in a rural community, teaching almost every science and mathematics course! I received a lot of experience during that time; until I got restless and spent a year teaching at a school in North Carolina in the United States. It was a very humbling time for me, as I learned so much about myself as a teacher and as an adult. I realized that I love what I do for a living because I am passionate about my subjects and especially about fostering the attitude, skills and resiliency in the next generation. When I returned home, I decided to go back to university for my Masters in Education, where I concentrated on psychology and counselling. I have been a teacher for almost sixteen years (wow!), and I have valued every minute of it.

I spend many hours here at Brookes, from early morning to early evening. The days are never dull. I have appreciated the support and faith that the staff, students and parents have had in me taking on my role as MYP coordinator, and I love working with everyone to create a community that thrives on curriculum, community, service and international mindedness. I hope that the culture we have created has made students and parents feel like they have made a good decision to attend Brookes.

Don’t worry, I have a personal life too! My husband Jeff and I enjoy going on travelling adventures, road tips and spending time together actively, or just hanging out watching old TV shows and sports. When I’m not in the classroom (or in the administration office), you might find me in the kitchen – I love to cook and bake and learn new techniques to make good food for the people I love.