Please enjoy the new videos of students speaking of their experience at Brookes Westshore - more below. 

Dear Brookes Westshore Families and Friends,

This has been a fantastic year of learning at Brookes and next week is our last week of school for the year.  The year seems to have gone very quickly and I can’t believe there is only one week left.  Students remain engaged in learning and they are all putting in their very best efforts until the end, I congratulate all the students at Brookes for their determination and desire to learn. They are all on the road to be life-long learners.

There are several field trips next week where students have the opportunity to celebrate their achievements and friendships which have developed over the year.  On Friday, we will be holding the Celebration of Learning ceremonies at the following times.  Parents are welcome to attend.

• 9.00 - 10.00 am:  Grade 9, 10 and 11
• 10.15 - 10.45 am:  Grade 4 and 5
• 10.50 - 11.35 am:  Grade 6, 7 and 8

Students will receive a 'grab and go' lunch at 12.00 and will then be dismissed for the 2022-23 Academic Year. 

Please remember that we will wear formal uniform next Friday (and not Thursday) as we celebrate the end of the school year together.

Celebrating our students

I was delighted to receive a letter from the Metchosin Seniors’ Association this week – praising our students for their participation in the Metchosin Parisian Café event. The President of the Association wrote that our students were “polite, engaging, responsive, and kind, impressing both organizers and attendees who loved the special attention.” Thank you, Kate, Tristan, and Liath for being such great representatives of our school!

I would also like to congratulate Finn (grade 10) for being the recipient of the Youth Climate Activism Award. Well done Finn – we are so proud of your achievement!

And Calla (grade 10) has qualified for the BC Junior Golf tournament in Prince George in July.  Good luck Calla, we will all be rooting for you!

With kind regards,

Linda Bayes

Deputy Head of School

Middle Years and Youth Development Instrument Results

To gain a deeper understanding of the students’ social and emotional competence, mental and physical health, and well-being, our MYP3 (Grade 8) students participated in the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) led by the UBC research team in February, and our MYP5-DP2 (Grade 10-12) students participated in the Youth Development Instrument (YDI) led by the SFU research team in March.

Both the MDI and the YDI are self-reported questionnaires that aim to identify individual and contextual resources, opportunities, and practices that foster or hinder positive youth development.

We have now received the survey reports from the research team, and I am happy to share the highlighted results with our community.

Areas of Strength: Compared with students in other schools or districts, our students were more likely to…

Middle Years (MDI)

• report participation in out-of-school activities
• rate empathy for others as “high"

Youth (YDI)

• report participation in educational lessons or activities at school
• rate school environment (respect, care, support) as “high”

Areas of focus: Compared with students in other schools or districts, our students were more likely to…

MDI

• rate their worries of friendship as “high.”

YDI

• rate their eco-anxiety (concerned about climate change and other global environmental conditions) as “high.”

I’d like to thank everyone, all staff and parents, for your continuous support and care for our students. We will continue to work together to maintain our areas of strength and to further develop our areas of focus.

With gratitude,

Rui Li

Vice Principal of Academics / DP Coordinator

Grades 4 and 5 Science Fair

Preparations for the Grade 4 and 5 Science Fair underway in the classroom:

The Grade 4s and 5s wrapped up their Science Learning with a Science Fair. Everyone used the Scientific Method to explore a question of their choosing. We saw simple machines, solutions, electricity and more! Well done Grade 4s and 5s!

Grade 4 Debate

Preparation

This activity took place over 3 days. On day 1, the students all wrote debate questions on the board and then everyone voted on a question they thought would be worth debating.

The class chose: "Should Canada have taxes?" 

Next, we came up with key topics that we wanted to have represented in the debate. These were: 1) society 2) economy 3) infrastructure. 

Each team got to choose a person from the opposing team who they thought would be fair to be a judge.  

Then the class was separated into 2 teams and the teams decided who would argue which points. We ended up with 2-3 people on each of the topics. The students had 2 blocks to write their arguments.

Debate Day

On the day of the debate the teams took turns presenting their arguments for 1) society 2) economy 3) infrastructure.  After everyone had a chance to read their arguments, we had a 10-minute round of rebuttals. In this round, students had the opportunity to speak off the cuff, responding to each other. Everyone was permitted to speak a maximum of 2 times, so they had to work as a team to get their points across. After the rebuttals, each group had 2 minutes to plan their closing statements, and then the judges gave marks and feedback for all 3 rounds.

The students really engaged with the topic, worked well together, and respectfully argued their points. Well done Grade 4!

MYP 1 to MYP 4 Design Outcomes

Below is a slideshow of this term's work of the MYP classes:

MYP 5 took time out at Thetis Lake to relax and recharge. 

Mia, DP1 student and SLC Service Committee representative, talks here about upcoming service initiatives, and the importance of service to our students and the IB. 

A great example of service: As part of the MYP4 service project Julia and Marichka hung the birdhouses they have been building.  They hung 5 birdhouses on the school property today.  We look forward to seeing how our local birds take to their new homes! 

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:

• Rui Li - Vice Principal and DP Coordinator
• Andrea Salvador - School Manager / Events
• Jacob Baumgartner - Community and Wellness Coordinator
• Melanie Moroz - MYP Coordinator