Dear Brookes Westshore Families and Friends, Another busy week at Brookes Westshore. Grade 12 students are very much relieved to have completed their mock exams. These exams allow students the opportunity to experience the IB exam process and also identify some knowledge gaps and receive feedback from teachers on areas for improvement. Teachers use the mock exams, IA scores and past achievements to provide predicted grades for IB Diploma students. Universities use these predicted scores for admission purposes for the full Diploma students. For course candidates universities accept the BC grades. We were able to provide a small celebration for the DP 2 students on Wednesday afternoon to mark the “100 days of school left” milestone. Plans for graduation have begun and students have started working with Ms. Salvador to organize this very special event. Interim Reports were issued last Friday, and all parents have access to these reports on ManageBac. If you experience difficulties accessing the reports, please let me know. February 15th - 17th is our IB Programme Evaluation visit, and we are ready!! IB evaluators will be meeting with several different teachers/parent/student groups to assess our implementation of the Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. With kind regards, Linda Bayes Deputy Head of School Mr. Ward on the DP Theory of Knowledge (TOK) at Brookes Westshore As we approach the month of May, it is time for our DP2 students to start preparing for their May IB exams. To give students a taste of what the actual IB exams will be like, our DP2 students wrote their mock exams this week. The mock exams also give students an opportunity to identify any areas where they may need to focus their studies. To help students get ready for the IB exams, here are the things we do here at the school:
We encourage a positive and supportive learning environment by recognizing and celebrate students’ efforts and achievements. This Wednesday after the mock exam, we celebrated DP2 students’ 100-day until graduation! Special thanks to Ms. Erin Sask for this great idea, Mr. James Boxshall for making a lovely video of teachers cheering up the DP2 students (see below), and the events committee for organizing this sweet celebration party on such short notice! DP2 students, you are almost there, and you can do it! With gratitude, Rui Li Vice Principal of Academics You are hereby cordially invited to the Brookes Westshore Masquerade Ball on Friday, March 3rd, 2023 Arrive in your best garments and be prepared to witness the most magnificent evening of the century!
Grade 8 - 12 Tickets in advance at the front desk: $8 / Tickets on the door: $10 SENNIOR BOYS' BASKETBALL FUNDRAISER EVENTS! Our Senior Boys basketball team is going into the playoffs ranked 3rd in BC! These athletes have been working very hard to keep this provincial ranking and we are looking for your support with the travel fees! We will be running three fundraiser events to help cover the costs of the Island and Provincial fees. The accommodation and travel fees for both tournaments are approximately $5,000. Our goal is to raise $2500 to help cover some of these costs for our athletes. To sign up for these events or to donate please use the QR Codes below (they will bring you to an online form to complete), click the link, or you can fill out a hard copy at our front desk. Details in the links. Thanks for your support! Go Gryphons!
Calling All Present and Future Brookes Parents! The Arts Committee in the Student Leadership Council is planning to host a Parents’ Paint Night at Brookes Westshore school to fundraise for future scholarships for students at Brookes. Dr. Currie, a fellow Brookes parent, will be giving a lesson on how to paint a beautiful landscape of British Columbia using palate knives. We will also provide complementary art supplies and hors d’oeuvres! We’re unsure how many parents would be interested in joining, so if you’re considering attending, please contact us at: lredivo@westshore.brookes.org. Thank you! Times Colonist 10K The TC 10k is a great challenge for those looking at staying fit and motivated over the winter months and into Spring. This year's race is on Sunday, April 30th. We are hoping to enter a school team. We are looking for students, parents, families and staff members to join. If you are interested in participating in the race, please add yourself to our school team ‘BROOKES WESTSHORE’ when you register online. If we have 10 or more people registered by March 23rd, we will receive race shirts with our school's name and logo on it! You will also get a $5.00 registration discount by joining our school team! We hope to see you out there on race day! Spread the word. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Sask at esask@westshore.brookes.org. Staff messages to DP 2 students with 100 days to graduation 100 Days to Graduation To mark the end of mock exams we hosted a surprise party for the DP2 students on Wednesday. It was exactly 100 days until their graduation, and teachers had recorded supportive messages to keep students' spirits up and inspire them to do their best over the coming weeks! Mental Health in Schools Last month Mr. B and Dr. Li attended a provincial outreach on Mental Health In Schools. This training was a helpful step in continuing to develop our school's mental health curriculum moving forward. Some important topics from the workshop included promoting connection and relationships, emotional regulation strategies and understanding trauma-informed practice. As a school we are working hard to normalize mental health and support mental wellbeing. It is a very busy time of year for many of our students. Here are some emotional regulation strategies we can all use to keep us on track:
A pair of otters spent Thursday morning frolicking in front of us on the banks of Colwood Creek. The student-run Dungeons and Dragons club started their adventures this week. On Thurs, February 9th the photography 11 and visual arts 11 classes visited the Royal BC Museum to see the annual wildlife in focus exhibition. Students had a great time mingling the two classes while picking out favorites from the high-quality photographs...including some taken by photographers under 10 yrs old! DP 1 Chemistry We have been learning about different types of bonds in DP1 Chemistry. In this group presentation task, students picked one metallic property and need to use a diagram to explain the property with its real-life application. Students had fun using drawing to demonstrate their understanding in Science. They also had a better understanding of the topic by doing this group presentation. Wildlife photographer of the year - where? See Sunday's activity! Dorm Activities Feb 10th - 12th Friday 6:15pm - Royals Hockey Game! Friday 8:00pm - Japanese Curry with Ms. Satsuki Saturday 11:00am - Cheer on the Brookes Sr Boys Basketball in Playoff Final! Saturday 6:30pm - IMAX Elvis Sunday 1:00pm - Wildlife Photographer Of The Year + Royal Museum Sunday 3:30pm - Super Bowl Party in Dining Hall! The dorm students visited Pacific FC's indoor training facility and had a kick-about on the artificial turf. Photos of last week's Lunar New Year Celebration! This event was led by our fabulous dorm parent Ms. Billie! The students prepared and cooked homemade shrimp egg rolls, vegetarian egg rolls, dumplings, sweet glutinous rice dumplings, sweet glutinous rice pudding, white turnips pudding, water chestnut pudding and savory glutinous rice dumplings. It was a delicious meal to share together! The dorm also had a riddle competition, where each floor had riddles to solve in Chinese, English and Spanish. The 5th floor was the fastest floor to solve the riddles and they won a prize! Junior Girls' Volleyball The grade 6-8 Girls’ Volleyball team played a pair of games at Journey Middle School yesterday. Our first game was against a strong team from Dunsmuir. Despite a strong effort from our team, Dunsmuir won the first set 25-18 and the second set 25-21. Our second game was against Journey. The team played even better in this game, winning 25-11 and 25-14 thanks to some strong serving by the girls combined with some good defensive play. Well done, Gryphons! Senior Boys Lower Island Basketball Playoffs The Senior Boys Lower Island Playoffs began this week at Duncan Christian School. Brookes Westshore set the tone for the weekend with two big wins against St Johns (72-24) and Lake Cowichan (70-26). In our first win, Rodrigo won player of the game for his tenacious defense and full court effort for the entirety of the game. He made great decisions on offence and defense and came into the game focused and with the will to win! In our second game, Noam was announced as player of the game. Noam, who is only in Grade 10, stepped up in a big way by running the point guard position for the majority of the game. He led the team's offence, set up the plays efficiently and was vocal on the court. He also showed great effort on both ends of the court and overall played solidly throughout the game. He finished the game with 6 points and 7 assists! On Saturday Brookes will be playing in the Lower Island Finals at 12:00pm! Come cheer us on at Duncan Christian School or click the link here to watch the live stream (click on day 5!) Go Gryphons! Thanks to Raymond for the great images (that's him with the camera)! Do you have questions? If you have a question about the school or just something on your mind, please feel free to contact our leadership team:
Brookes Westshore acknowledges that our school is on the traditional lands of the Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) and Lekwungen (Songhees) ancestors and families. |