Dear Brookes Westshore Families and Friends,

School is back in session and, as you can see from all the photos this week, our students have embraced the new term. I am so impressed with how our students have continued to stay focused on their education in the face of the pandemic. Their resilience and resourcefulness is humbling. We are very much aware of the additional stress the pandemic has brought to our community and to our students in particular. With this in mind, we will be introducing some fun activities into our busy schedule to help lift spirits around the school – watch this space!

This week we have worked with staff and students to make sure they are prepared for online learning – revisiting our online class protocols and ensuring everyone will have access to the necessary technology. Of course, we all want to keep our classrooms open for in-person learning but are making sure that if there is the need for a temporary shift to online classes, we can make that shift as smoothly as possible. We have also reinforced our COVID 19 protocols with staff and students.  In the unlikely event that we switch to online learning, we will provide our families with a manual that will guide you through the process with useful tips on how you can support your child.  

I would like to thank you all for your part in keeping our community safe and healthy. I feel sure we are moving towards better times as the year progresses,

With kind regards,

Jerry Salvador

Head of School

Dear Parents,

Students had a wonderful first week back at school and students were engaged and very happy to be together again after the break.

IB DP Mock Exams

Grade 12 students started IB Mock Exams today and these will continue until Wednesday next week. The mock exams are an opportunity for students to experience the 'feel' of an examination session - helping them prepare for the IB Exams in May. The mock exams also provide teachers with a tool to better judge their students' level, and feed that information into their predicated grades.  Those students enrolled in the full IB Diploma Programme will be required to submit their predicated grades to universities in February. These grades are important for universities when they are determining acceptance offers to students.

COVID 19 Update

The Ministry of Education has provided us with some additional guidelines to navigate our way through this next wave of COVID 19. The Public Health Authority will no longer be involved with contact tracing for tracking COVID 19 cases and will not notify schools of any COVID 19 exposures. The Public Health Authority has instructed BC residents who test positive to notify everyone they live with and any intimate contacts.

To ensure we limit exposure and maintain a safe learning environment for our students, we continue to ask parents and students to complete a daily health check before coming to school. Any staff or student who has COVID 19 symptoms is required to stay at home. The BC Health Check provides guidance on determining when you should keep your child home from school.

Students have been provided with additional guidance this week on hand hygiene and social distancing to reduce the spread of any infections. Please note that schools are no longer required to notify the community of any COVID 19 infections.

The Ministry of Education has asked schools to collect and report daily attendance data to help support their management of school openings. We are required to report on how many students are absent due to illness on each school day. We would appreciate your use of the ManageBac attendance excusal to notify us if your child is sick.  Please note, we are not asking you to report whether or not your child has COVID 19 or has been tested. 

When you submit an attendance excusal on ManageBac the message is shared with each teacher of classes your child has on that day. This really saves us a lot of time! 

If you require assistance on how to submit an attendance excusal, please let us know and we can help.  You can also find further information from this ManageBac Help Tutorial. (Navigating ManageBac as a Parent – ManageBac) There is a tab in the upper right corner on ManageBac called “submit attendance excusal” – click on this to submit the excusal. You can also leave comments (which are very helpful for us).

February 18 is a Professional Development day for teachers – there will be no school on that day.

Term 2 ASAs begin on Monday barring any further or new COVID 19 restrictions. Please check your child’s schedule, or get them to, so we can remove any conflicts or errors as soon as possible. If something is off, email Mr. Rudner at: brudner@westshore.brookes.org

Also, the following ASAs need higher enrolment to run: 

• Cooking classes for grades 8 to 10 - Wednesday 
• Drawing & Colouring for grades 9 to 12 – Wednesday 
• Fencing Academy (beginner) - Thursday 
• Fencing Academy (intermediate) - Friday *If those with the prerequisites for this ASA want to join the beginner class, that might work to at least keep fencing going this term.
• Leadership Development for grades 6 to 12 – Thursday 

Beyond these, please submit “join requests” for any ASAs you want. You will be added if possible. Also, make sure to tell Mr. Rudner with an email or Teams message if you need to be removed from one. Check your schedules today to make sure it is correct. 

Waivers have been emailed to all students and their parents/guardians who are enrolled in the Boxing and Equestrian Academies.

*BOXING WEDNESDAY ASA – The Boxing Gym has just informed me that they cannot run classes on Wednesdays. Those signed up, I have sent you an email letting you know it will run on Thursdays instead. 

Today we celebrated the Black Excellence Day. Students wore black clothing and brought a donation to show our solidarity with Black and racialized communities in BC in their struggle for equity, equality and justice.

Our DP2 student, William, explained the meaning of the Black Excellent Day through our morning announcement. Our MYP5 students, Efosa and Fawaz, went to collect all the donation to be sent to the Ninandotoo Society.

Lots of hard work in the labs and classrooms this week - students have hit the ground running!

Some of our international students are in isolation in their dorm rooms - following the protocols for arriving in Canada. We are looking after them well and keeping them engaged and well fed (this photo is of Melanie delivering meals to their rooms).

School is back in session - and our friendly neighbourhood peacock is ready (showing excellent social distancing skills)!