Dear Brookes Westshore Families and Friends,

Happy Earth Day! Very appropriately for Earth Day - our local parents will have seen all the work being carried out at the front of the school, on the banks of Colwood Creek. This is the final stage in our environmental remediation strategy, in partnership with the Mayor of Colwood and Royal Roads University. The invasive species have been fully removed by Janet and her ASA team (great work!), and now we are seeing new soil being laid, and the replanting of local species – ensuring a healthy and thriving Colwood Creek for future generations.

Now the term is back in full swing, and we have completed our parent-teacher interviews, I would like to invite parents of grade 9 and 10 students to another of our popular Coffee Mornings on Friday May 13^th at 9 am in the dining hall. We know this is a time when your thoughts are on the final years of high school for your children, and we would like to give you the opportunity to talk with us, ask questions, and find out more about how Brookes Westshore delivers the IB Diploma Programme and supports students through to university. Please RSVP to Sheri. We'd love to see you there!

As you can see from the photos, we are a thriving community here at Brookes Westshore. We are very grateful to you, our families, for the support you give us and the commitment you have made to our school. We are planning for September with several classes already full, or nearly so, and that is a testament to how our families speak about us in your communities. Thank you.

With kind regards,

Jerry Salvador

Head of School

Earth Day celebrations in the courtyard

Graduation Assessments for MYP 5 (Grade 10)

Students will be writing the BC Numeracy 10 Assessment on Monday, April 25th and the BC Literacy Assessment on Wed. April 27th. 

Students have been prepared for the assessment and I would like to remind them all to bring a fully charged computer to school on Monday.  The assessment is completed online through a secure website.  Here is a parent brochure which provides additional information about the assessment:  graduation-numeracy-assessment-brochure.pdf (gov.bc.ca)  These assessments are a required component to receive the BC Dogwood but haven’t been used by universities for admission purposes. Both of these assessments will be graded on a 1-4 scale.

1. Emerging
2. Developing
3. Proficient
4. Extending

When we receive the results from the Ministry, they will be shared with students and parents.

Service Learning

The mission statement of Brookes Westshore and the IB is one which commits to help children develop the attributes and skills to make positive contributions to the world. 

Service learning and participation in service activities are central to all IB  programmes. We are working at each year level to ensure students meet the learning outcomes for service. 

Each year level of the MYP is required to plan and participate in a service activity which is facilitated by teachers.  As students move into the Diploma Programme, the expectation is for them to be more independent in planning and participating in service.

• MYP1 students have completed their service project on measuring food waste and are planning another service project, "Just because we want to".
• MYP2 students are currently planning a service project to help support homeless youth in Victoria.  They are collecting pledges for their May 6th walk-a-thon and the funds raised will be used to purchase backpacks and supplies to fill each one.  Please help support one of our MYP2 students. 
• MYP3 students will be working on a project to monitor the water conditions of the Colwood Creek and that will begin next week.
• MYP4 students have been raising funds for donations to the Red Cross to support the victims of the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. They also created activities for Earth Day.
• MYP5 students are helping with supervision during lunch and have several individual projects on the go. 

(above) Grade 12 students diligently preparing for their exams.

IB Exams

Our DP2 (Grade 12) students begin writing the IB examinations on Thursday, April 28th.  They start with Physics on that morning and Business in the afternoon. We wish them all the very best in their exams.

Thank you for your continued support in making Brookes Westshore a place for your children to learn and grow.

We would like to ask you to share your thoughts on Brookes Westshore on the Our Kids website - one of our key partners in bringing new students to our school.

Your support is so helpful - your perspective really gives families the insight they need when deciding if Brookes Westshore is the right fit for their children. And we would love to welcome more families like yours to our school!

Please click here to start. Thank you.

Graduation 2022

Graduation is only a month away and excitement is building. We have been working hard to make this a wonderful and memorable event for our graduating students. 

Tickets for the Graduation Ceremony and dinner at Church and State are now on sale. The deadline to purchase tickets is May 1^st so please make sure to purchase as soon as possible! 

Please see the email in ManageBac to all graduating students and their families for details of graduation fees and how to purchase dinner tickets.

For anyone who missed the Public Health Nurses Immunization session this week at Brookes, we have another day booked for next week on Thursday April 28th at the Belmont Wellness Centre. Please get in touch with our nurse Melanie mpenn@westshore.brookes.org so she can make arrangements.

Local families, did you know you can also book at the Health Unit directly? For more details, contact the Westshore Health Unit at 250-519-3491 or follow the link: https://www.islandhealth.ca/our-locations/health-unit-locations/west-shore-health-unit

For information on the vaccination schedule for school aged children and teens:

https://immunizebc.ca/school-age-children-teens

#EarthDay at Brookes Westshore - students did a great job of recognizing our collective responsibility to help accelerate the transition to an equitable, prosperous green economy for all. Students organized and ran a range of activities across the grades - supporting and celebrating our community!

The Culture Club took a look at traditions around the world involving eggs (it was Easter after all!) 

Reading buddies has been a great success this term - offering older students an opportunity to be a mentor, and younger students a chance to work on their skills with a friendly fellow-student from another grade. 

This is a cute clay turtle from Ms. Campbell's grade 10 'site-specific' art project.

Students sometimes get the chance to play together in the dorm games room.

Taking advantage of the spring sunshine on the terrace our dorm students planted seedlings for their new garden.

40% Discount for Powerful Youth Program for Brookes Westshore students!

This summer’s Powerful Youth Program is filling up fast! We would love to have students from Brookes Westshore be a part of the adventure!

We are offering a 40% discount for students at Brookes Westshore to join either the junior or senior Session One Program. Here are some more details of the schedule and some of the participants talking about the impact the program had on them.

Here is the senior schedule

Here is the junior schedule

1. Learn about the overall purpose of the program.

2. See some participant testimonials and descriptions from the junior program here 

3. Some participant testimonials and descriptions from the senior program 

Please contact Graham Brown (gbrown@brookes.org) if you are interested!

Key dates for the school year starting in September 2022 can be found here: Key Dates 2022/2023 - Brookes Westshore