A Message from VP of Academics - Linda Bayes

Dear Brookes Westshore Families,

An important part of our school culture is the idea of community. We strive to offer a caring and welcoming community to all our students and families. We are always happy to see the connections and friendships that blossom between local and overseas students at Brookes. We believe that friendships between students will last a lifetime and enrich the lives of our students and their families.

We would like to ask our local families to help us extend this sense of community. We are exploring ways we can encourage local families to invite and host our boarding students in their homes. With the Easter Holidays just around the corner we thought it would be a perfect time for our international students to visit with their Canadian friends.

Of course, we take our responsibilities as ‘surrogate parents’ to our boarding students very seriously and will have to work out the best way to ensure any visit goes smoothly. But as a first step we want to see who in our local community would be interested in inviting an international student to their homes for the Easter weekend. If you would like to host an international student (or more than one!) over the Easter weekend please contact Linda at lbayes@westshore.brookes.org and let her know your thoughts.

Thank you.

Grade Seven Science

In grade 7 science, we have been studying how to increase the rate of reactions. For our experiment, we focused on the decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide into liquid water and oxygen gas.

HOOH(aq)  ->  H2O(l) + O2(g) 

This is a reaction many of our cells perform on a daily basis with the help of an enzyme, catalase. In this experiment, we wondered if increasing the concentration of catalase (found in activated baker’s yeast!) would increase the rate of this decomposition reaction. By adding a detergent and food colouring, we were able to visualize the rate at which oxygen gas is produced— and thus, the rate of reaction.

We had lots of fun and students gained all sorts of practical laboratory skills, including measuring accurate volumes with serological pipettes and bulbs —trickier than it looks!

Goldstream Salmon Hatchery

Roots and Shoots and Biology students were fully engaged at the Goldstream Hatchery on Thursday, Feb 13. The day began with an orientation to the hatchery, a tour of the facility, and participation in helping to prepare young salmon before they are released into streams on the Island. The students were able to prepare over 2800 fry by trimming adipose fins. Thank you to the Goldstream Volunteer Salmonid Enhancement Association for providing us with such a great opportunity. Click here to learn more about the Goldstream Volunteer Salmonid Enhancement Association:

https://www.gvsea.com/about.html

Parent Information Session

On February 25 we will hold a parent information session at 5:30 pm and we encourage all students and parents to attend. This event will provide parents with the opportunity to learn about the Diploma Programme and its acceptance by universities. Grade 10 Students will start making their course choices during the first two weeks of March. 

Personal Project Exhibition

February 20th 2020

2.30 to 3.30 pm in the Dining Hall

The Personal Project is an independent research-based project for all students in grade 10. It is a significant piece of work based on students' interests, initiative and creativity. The project focuses on one Global Context. 

The upcoming exhibition is a celebration of the work and an opportunity for the students to showcase their products.

Please join us for an exhibition of student-led inquiry, design and reflection.

Friday March 6th is Quiz Night at Brookes!

Announcing the inaugural Quiz Night at Brookes Westshore!

Do you know your Selina Gomez from your Demi Lovato? Your Pythagoras from your Euclid? Your Burkino Faso from your Benin? Then Quiz Night is for you!

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!

Teams should include at least one parent, one student and one staff member. If you can't put a team together - no problem! Anyone interested will have a place - we will make sure no-one is without a team.

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 interested!

James

jboxshall@westshore.brookes.org
 

Weekend Activities with Brookes Boarders

What a weekend! On friday night, professional dodgeball players from Team BC and Team Canada came to Brookes to teach us the art of dodgeball. Dorm and day students “matrix-ed” their way around balls without being hit and aimed to get their opponents out of the game. The pros also wanted to give a special shout out to Sophie, Meghan and Farrah. Sarah from dodgeball BC said, “Those girls are SO awesome!”

On saturday night, a group of students ventured downtown to Axe and Grind. At Axe and Grind professionals taught us how to throw axes accurately at the target in a fun and safe manner. It was an axe-cellent evening! 

Lastly, on Sunday, a third group of students went to Hands On Pottery and were taken through a workshop using pottery wheels. We can’t wait to see the finished products when they are out of the kiln in a couple weeks. Students seized the day AND seized the clay.

Junior Boys Basketball

The Jr. Boys Basketball team continued their impressive season with tournament win!

Last Friday and Saturday the Jr. Boys Basketball team travelled to EMCS to take place in a seven team tournament. The team led by tournament MVP Steven, defeated Esquimalt, St. Andrews and Stelly’s on its way to the tournament win. Shout out to Alex who dropped 20 points in the final win. With another big win over Esquimalt this Monday thanks to some clutch play by Ohm, the team is in a three way tie for first place heading into playoffs next week!

Junior Girls Volleyball

The grade 6-8 girls’ volleyball team travelled to Sooke on Wednesday for their second mini-tournament of the season. The girls played very well, winning 3 out of 4 sets against teams from Journey Middle School and Dunsmuir Middle School. Their coach (Mr. Turkington) was very impressed with both their teamwork and positive spirit. Great work!

Sportsmanship at Brookes

We received the following email from a parent from another school this week and thought we would share it with you. We are so proud of our students and the amazing young adults they are growing to be - on and off the court.

Hi there,

I’m a parent of an Esquimalt high school student. We hosted a game against Brookes on Monday of this week.

I have been a basketball mom for years, I have been a soccer mom for a decade... despite the amount of competitions I have watched I have absolutely never watched such a gracious team. Your students were kind, well mannered, polite and sincerely left a lasting impression on this mom. I thought I’d send this email because we all love to hear positive things about our children and you all deserve to hear that your students are conducting themselves in an exemplary manner (even while in a very rowdy school).

Number 8 [Steven Fang] really stood out to me as my son was guarding him, number 8 is exceedingly athletic (as is my son) however your student was definitely the better competitor that day (as they won). Number 8 accidentally knocked my son down a few times and each time he helped him up and made sure he was ok (despite my son not being small or seemingly at all injured).

Anywho, I was just so incredibly impressed that I wanted to let you all know you’re doing a fabulous job with those young men.

I look forward to watching your players develop over the years, they truly are such a joy.

Thank you for all you do