Rowing on Elk Lake in the evening light - we are so grateful to live in such a beautiful part of the world!

Dear Brookes Westshore Families and Friends,

Brookes Westshore staff and students practiced the emergency procedures for an earthquake this week. Teachers reviewed procedures and provided some lessons to support the drill. Please see the BC ShakeOut website for more information. 

On November 7th we will be holding a parent information session at 16.30 on MYP Assessment. This will be a valuable session for parents who are new to the MYP or want to learn more about how we assess student achievement levels. Please RSVP so we can plan for numbers. Thank you.

Interim Report Cards are issued today via ManageBac and all parents will receive an email and a link to assess the reports.  I encourage all parents to download the pdf of the report and save for their own records.  All reports remain on ManageBac as long as the student is enrolled at Brookes.  The term 1 reports will be issued on December 9th and this report will include grades and teacher comments. 

A gentle reminder to please use the ManageBac Attendance Excusal form if your child isn't coming to the school that day (for 'how to' please click here)

The school is very busy in preparing for the many activities associated with Halloween and we have also started planning the Winter Festivities. 

We have had such a wonderful start to the year, and I am so impressed with the engagement in learning across all grade levels.

With kind regards,

Linda Bayes

Deputy Head of School

IB Students at University

The IB recently published the results of a research study comparing university outcomes of IB DP graduates to their peers at the University of Toronto (UofT) during the academic year of 2006 - 2021 and the University of British Columbia (UBC) during the academic year of 2012-2018.

It was found that the DP graduates:

• were much more likely to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields than were their high school peers: 45.1-50.1% of DP graduates vs. 25.5-29.8% of their peers
• consistently achieved higher university average grades than their peers
• had lower university drop-out rates (12.9% at UofT and 4% at UBC) than their peers (14.2 - 19.6% at UofT and 4.9 - 7.6% at UBC)
• were the most likely to earn merit awards at UofT (43.1%) compared to their peers (29.0 - 39.3%)
• were significantly more likely to participate in cooperative education programmes at UBC (37.3%) than their peers (23.5 - 28.4%).

More detailed information can be found here.

Rui Li

Vice Principal

MYP 4 Science and DNA

Recently, MYP4 Science took part in a lab involving candy. Students built upon their knowledge of DNA structure and successfully created double helix models, by hand, using candy to represent the many components of the DNA molecule.

Next lesson, students will participate in another lab and if successful, will be able to identify DNA (extracted from strawberries) with the naked eye!

Student Perspectives

Hi, I am Mia from Japan, and I'm in grade 11 (DP1). I am posting my school life at Brookes on Instagram as a CAS project. On my account @ryugaku_brookeswestshore, I mainly post about my life in Canada as an international student for Japanese people who are interested in studying abroad. However, I am working to create an Instagram account that anyone can enjoy viewing, using both Japanese and English!

This CAS project contains elements of creativity and service. I want to share information about studying abroad in Canada and school life at Brookes with many people, so please follow me!

Thanks Mia!

Please support Mia's CAS project by following her stories here. Not only will you support Mia - but you will also help people in Japan, and around the world, get a sense of our school from the perspective of our students!

An example of Mia's amazing work

Yesterday afternoon, Ms. Julia took the MYP 1 (grade 6) class across the Galloping Goose Trail to the grounds of Royal Roads University for some team-building games. They had lots of fun and the kids even elected to play a few rounds of Stella-Stella-Ola (pictured). Also pictured is a game of balloon relays! 

We are so lucky to be right next to Hatley Park and the grounds of Royal Roads University! 

Halloween

We have a lot of events and activities lined up for Halloween this year! Always a fun and spooky time of year - this year's celebrations will include:

Thursday October 27th: Pumpkin Carving competition for House points during Community Block! 

Friday October 28th: Lunchtime movie with popcorn and....

• In Costume Dance Night!
  • Grade 4 to Grade 7 (MYP 2) - 3.30 pm to 5 pm pick up  
  • Grade 8 to 12 (MYP 3 to DP2) - 7pm to 10 pm
  • Get your Thriller moves ready!

  • SLC Haunted House 7:00 - 8:00pm

Monday, October 31st: 

Costume Contest for all - 12.45 in the courtyard

Introduction to Kate Barton, MYP Art and Design

Born in England, I received a 2:1 B A (Hons) Fine Art Painting and Printmaking from Sheffield Hallam University. I completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Canterbury Christ Church university specializing in 14-19 age range teaching Art and Design.  I subsequently taught Art and Design in two Kent secondary schools in the UK.  I have my BC teaching certificate with Canadian post graduate credits in Indigenous education, Inclusion, Social emotional learning and Special educational needs assessment for BC.

 In 2010 my husband and I moved to Ghana where he managed a Tilapia farm and I returned to my painting practice and explored the country.  We did not live in Ghana long as an opportunity arose for us to move to Haida Gwaii and it was there that we started our family. When the chance to live on Vancouver Island arose, we took it, and it was here our second child was born. Since moving to Canada, in 2011, I have been lucky enough to enjoy the balance of staying home looking after my kids whilst working a range of part time roles, primarily as the Decoda Literacy outreach coordinator for Sooke. I use our family hikes, and weekend running to inform my abstract paintings which take inspiration from the landscape. I learned so much about Canada through the Indigenous Education course I enrolled on with Thompson Rivers university. I am committed to truth and reconciliation and in 2021 lead a group working towards Action 9: language and story with T'Sou-ke Truth for Reconciliation group. Prior to this I was a member of the  T'Sou-ke Arts group until 2019. Our family have been welcomed to Canada by the Indigenous communities we have lived in an I am grateful to live on the ancestral lands of the T'Sou-ke nation.

Here at Brookes, I teach Design and Art. I am excited to bring graphic design, architecture and product design to our units! I am really looking forward to taking our students on trips where they will experience art, design and culture firsthand in museums and galleries. I am very much enjoying getting to know my students, from our conversations so far I have so many ideas for activities which allow them to learn new skills and express themselves through a range of media and equipment in our Makerspace and Art studio, watch this space!

Cupcakes from last weekend's activities - delicious!

Dorm students can enjoy the following activities this weekend:

• Friday 7:30pm - Haunted Manor Mini Golf 
• Friday 8:00pm - Fifa video game tournament - Prize for winner
• Saturday 2:00pm - Zombie Apocalypse Scavenger Hunt Downtown Victoria (Brookes teams) 
• Saturday 6:15pm - Camosun College Volleyball Home Opener Game
• Sunday 2:00pm - Halloween Costume Shopping at "Spirit of Halloween" and Value Village Downtown
• Saturday 8:30pm - Fun yogalates Common Room 4 

Some photos of our budding musicians -the Melody Club are passionate about music - and are working out what new instruments they are going to ask for!

Rowing

Rowing for me is so much fun because it's something new to me and everyone is very supportive. Rowing is also good work for your body because it keeps your whole body moving the entire time. The rowing community is growing and having more regattas (races) through the year. Rowing is a great sport because of how close you get with your team and how fast you get ripped. It would be great if we could get more people to join the team so that we have more chances of winning more races!

Sam in Grade 9

This past weekend was the first regatta for our fledgling rowing crew. The Brookes Westshore rowers participated in the novice races on Saturday with an open quad and 2 open races (a single and a double). On Sunday with an open quad (with a coxswain) and a single.

Our students did really well for a novice crew and are looking forward to working on their skills in the coming weeks!

Volleyball

The Senior Boys volleyball team did not disappoint their home crowd last night!

The boys won both games beating Victor Brodeur 25-20 and 25-15 and then faced Stelly’s beating them 25-13 and 25-12.

Special shout out to Rodrigo, Adam, Cameron and Fawaz who stepped up and played amazingly well! 

You can see all their fixtures and results here.