A beautiful sunset over our school - thanks to parent Craig B. for the photo!

Dear Brookes Westshore Families and Friends,

We are delighted to extend a warm welcome to Mr. Geoff Thom, our newest addition to the Brookes family. Mr. Thom comes to us with notable teaching experience in Math, Science, and PHE. He is also experienced in coaching various sports. Most excitingly, Mr. Thom is a Brookes alumnus! We are confident that his passion and expertise will further enrich the learning experience for our students. You can learn more about Mr. Thom in his biography below.

As we approach the end of Term 1, let’s take a moment to reflect on the achievements and milestones of the term, which has been filled with lots of learning and growing. We commend the dedication of our students, the tireless efforts of our staff, and the ongoing support from parents and guardians.

The Term 1 Learning Update will be issued on ManageBac on December 1^st. For students in grades 4-9, the Provincial Proficiency Scale (Emerging, Developing, Proficient, Extending) and teacher comments will be included in the term 1 learning update. Our MYP students (grades 6-10) will also receive IB criteria grades (1-8). There are 4 criteria in each subject. In some subjects, it can be difficult to have all 4 criteria assessed by the end of Term 1, but all criteria will be assessed by the end of Term 2. For students in grades 10-12, BC letter grades and percentages will still be used to ensure successful transition to post-secondary.

The last week of ASAs is December 4^th – 8^th. There will be no ASA during the last week of school before winter break (December 11^th – 15^th). Term 2 ASAs start during the week of January 15^th – 19^th and term 2 ASA sign-up on SchoolsBuddy will open during the week of December 11^th – 15^th. If you have any questions about ASA, feel free to contact us at asa@westshore.brookes.org.

The last day of school before winter break is December 15^th and students will be released at 12:30 pm after lunch. There will be supervision available if parents are not able to pick up their child at this time.

With kind regards,

Dr. Rui Li

Principal

Students on the BC Tour last Spring Break

Spring Break Trips - India, the UK, and a winter tour of the best of BC!

We have three amazing trip opportunities for our students coming up in March 2024. 

For more details on these trips, please come to an information meeting on Tuesday, November 28th at 3:30 pm in the boardroom or join an online meeting on Wednesday, November 29th at 7pm with this link.  

Both meetings will be hosted by the CEO of Brookes Education Group - Graham Brown.  

The three trips available to students are:

UK Spring Break Tour (March 16th - 30th) - Grades 6-9 - $4,200 CAD

Cost is all inclusive including flight, insurance, accommodation,1 week integration with the Brookes UK school and 1 week of tour activities.

India Spring Break Tour (March 16th - 30th) - Grades 10,11 - $4,600 CAD

Cost is all inclusive including flight, insurance, accommodation, 1 week integration with the Brookes Kochi school and 1 week of tour activities.

BC Winter Tour / skiing trip - (March 18th - 29th) Grades 8-12 - $3,950

Cost includes transportation, accommodation, skiing at Mt Washington, Whistler, Vancouver and a visit to Harrison Hot Springs.

Brookes students tour Cambridge with its world-famous University (Spring Break Trip 2023)

Winter Showcase 2023

Join us on Thursday, December 7th for a 6.30 pm performance by our students. This casual evening of entertainment will be a mix of music, song, skits, and much more. Our wonderful kitchen crew will provide snacks and drinks and you will be able to sit back and relax and be entertained!

Please sign up here (seats are limited!)

Breakfast with Santa 2023

Pancake Breakfast 2023: Saturday December 16th (starting at 9.30 am with two sittings). Join us for some delicious food and a whole lot of fun! All proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Goldstream Foodbank - help us reach our $3000 goal!

Tickets ($20 for adults, $15 for children under 12) are on sale here!

If you would like to reserve a table - after you have bought your tickets - please let us know: events@westshore.brookes.org (tables are for a minimum of six people).

DP 1 Food Drive 2023

DP1 students would like to invite you to donate for the first food drive this school year. The food will be taken to the Goldstream Foodbank.

DP 1 Toy Drive 2023

Help spread some winter cheer this holiday season! Our Toy Drive Committee will be accepting donations this week, and every day until Christmas break.

COVID Vaccine clinic

We will be hosting a COVID vaccine clinic here at the school for any students and staff aged 12 and over (date to be decided)

Anyone who would like the vaccine needs to be registered with “Get Vaccinated BC” https://www.getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca/s/ Most of us are already registered and will have been sent a registration alpha numeric number starting with an R. Our nurse will need that number plus their legal name, date of birth and PHN (care card number) to register this with the pharmacy before the clinic.

Grade 4 art class were learning about negative space using oak leaves and chalk pastels. Some very colourful negative space was achieved on the black paper. Great job everyone!

Our Grade 4 and 5 students have put together a stunning collection of their artwork on sale through the Red Bubble website. You can see the Brookes Shop on Red Bubble here - and maybe something will catch your eye and make the perfect gift for family or friend?

Over the last couple of weeks we have been happy to welcome several of our alumni on campus. It is such a joy to see how our former students have stepped into the world beyond Brookes, and how they have met the challenges of life with the strong foundations that a Brookes education provides. 

We love that our alumni feel comfortable to return to the school, and how they offer support and guidance to our current students on possible ways ahead with university applications or career choices. 

As our school grows, we are actively building connections with past students and deepening our community of students from around the world. 

Bombardier Roberts (Class of 2017), Dylan and Mr. B discuss careers in the military.

Ms. Bayes and Jiyoung (Class of 2023)

Rino and Yujin (Class of 2023) visited Ms. Onushko in Tokyo on her recent recruitment visit.

On Monday, a University of Alberta admissions representative visited our campus to speak with interested students and that afternoon a representative from UBC followed on - top universities want to meet our students!

On Tuesday, four DP1 students travelled to the University of Victoria to attend a session about Vancouver Island Medical Programs. They had a great evening - learning a lot about the programmes at UVic and focusing their ambitions on the work ahead!

“During the admissions meeting for Vancouver Island’s Medical Programs at UVic, I learned about the admission process for medical programs at UVic and UBC, including valuable information on the MCAT and the interview process. I also learned about the importance of non-academic qualities in students who wish to get into medical school; admissions staff evaluate students 50% on their academic qualities and 50% on their non-academic qualities. Finally, I learned about the diversity of medical school and how students who get into medical school all come from very different backgrounds. For instance, there were two medical students from UVic who talked about their experiences before and during medical school, with one student who came from an agricultural background, and another who came from a teaching background! Overall, it was a very informative and valuable meeting.” Arlo, DP 1

On Wednesday we hosted a group from Experimento - one of the largest agencies in Brazil focusing on high school programmes. They were delighted with our campus, our programme, and our students (as well as our Gryphons!) We look forward to a productive partnership with Experimento in the years ahead!

Our Grade 4 students enjoyed a field trip to Goldstream Park today. Massive trees, majestic waterfalls, a meandering river that meets the sea, birds, and fascinating fish are but a few of the attractions that they got to enjoy. We are so grateful to be surrounded by such natural beauty, and our students love to spend time out of the classroom and in nature.

The dorm students had an awesome time in Vancouver last weekend! We visited the Vancouver Aquarium, had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, and even caught a Cirque du Soleil show.

Nikkita in MYP1 solved all of these brain teaser puzzles in the boardgame ASA. We are very proud of him!

The Japanese ASA was joined by a special guest this week - Mayu - who taught the group about Japanese calligraphy and gave them lessons in brushwork and technique.

Amelia's (MYP 4) trip to Ecuador

My dad and I traveled to Ecuador for 7 days for a bird-watching adventure. It was hot, warm, cold, windy, rainy, humid, and very foggy. While we were there, we saw 308 different species of bird and heard a few more but never spotted them (we don’t write down the birds we hear and have never seen before). I saw my 1000th specie of bird while I was there! My current species count is 1,132 different species of birds.

Since Ecuador is on the equator, we crossed it many times. There is even a monument in Quito that say the latitude, 00°00’00” which we passed while driving back to the airport. 

These photos are at 3200 metres in the mountains. The photo below is of two White-throated Screech-Owls which we saw after a steep long climb which was tiring because the altitude makes it hard to get enough oxygen in. 

Introducing Geoff Thom

Geoff obtained a BA in Arts & Science from Quest University in 2016, before receiving his BEd from Simon Fraser University in 2017. Until this year, when he relocated to Vancouver Island, Geoff has been teaching Math, Science and PHE in the Vancouver public system. He also has experience coaching volleyball, basketball, and badminton.

In his free time, Geoff enjoys competitive sports, studying mathematics and designing tabletop games. His qualifications and interests make him a great fit for Brookes Westshore; however, the thing that makes us most excited about him taking the position, is that Geoff is a BROOKES ALUMNI! Upon graduating from our Shawnigan campus in 2012, Geoff has stayed in close contact with Mr. B and Mr. T, who are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this full circle moment.

From Geoff:

I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work at such an incredible institution and to interact with your children on a daily basis. My goal is to support the students in developing core movement skills and concepts, learning rules and strategies for a variety of games and sports, identifying activity interests, managing physical and mental health, developing physical fitness, and learning to be a supportive community member and a good sport. 

Brookes Westshore acknowledges that our school is on the traditional lands of the Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) and Lekwungen (Songhees) ancestors and families.
With gratitude, we live, work and learn here where the past, present, and future of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, faculty and staff come together.