The week got off to a flying start with the launch of Westbourne Online’s wellness website, offering a wealth of age-appropriate resources to further support our pupils, there are also some lovely messages from teachers across the site, also featured below.
Our IB students had a spot of fun with the Paper Plane Challenge as well this week, highlighting the international element of our very special Westbourne School community.
A student body represented by 25 different nationalities, currently studying across multiple time zones and still handing in work on time – great job everyone!
As much as our pupils are missing the usual interaction of the traditional school day, our teachers are very much missing teaching our pupils in person. With that in mind our Senior Leaders share a message with each of their year groups.
There have been a lot of loo rolls…some impressive tennis skill challenges and this week two talented gymnasts set students both the handstand challenge and the splits challenge.
A huge thanks to Kaulana, Year 8 and Nazar, IB2 for sharing their challenges and an enormous well done to anyone who managed to achieve them!
Wellness and community challenges may have been a theme across the school this week, however, there has been some exceptional virtual classroom work taking place alongside it. Art in particular features, with Year 6 and 7 both sharing some excellent examples of work across the year groups.
We’ve had lots of fun viewing Year 6’s hybrid animal work, as part of a Dr Seuss illustration project…some fairly scary looking animals, as you can see!
The work of Roy Lichtenstein has formed part of Year 7’s pop art project over the past week, recreating and interpreting pieces with an onomatopoeic word of their own, as well as designing a shoe based on the pop art theme has led to some wonderful results!
Online School gives us all a great opportunity to meet some other members of the Westbourne community who perhaps don’t always get through the school gates!
We were delighted this week to meet Aidan, Morgan and Tom O’Donnell’s family four legged friends at the end of class….all very well behaved!
Another Westbourne family pet taking on a particular challenge is Snoopy, Tom’s dog, who alongside mum, Sonali, is running 2.6 miles daily for 26 consecutive days to raise funds for MASKS FOR NHS HEROES. Starting last Sunday, the day of the original London Marathon, we wish them and their fund raising efforts the very best of luck.
Burpees, shoulder taps and crab walks were expertly demonstrated by Grace in Year 6 this week as she helped Mrs Allen in running the PE lesson online. Meanwhile Jessica and Katie practised their yoga as part of their lesson.
As our Boarding House completes its sixth week in lockdown, students got together for some special thank you baking for our very special Boarding House parent, Ms Janette.
A huge thank you goes out this week to the Student Council who have been instrumental in co-ordinating many of the student led initiatives and support messages which have circulated over the past few weeks. Y6 Jess and George, Y7 Evie, Meg and Evan, Y8 Kaulana and Sam, Y9 Ibby, Josh and Musa, Y10 Issy and Abd, Pre-IB Esther and Jakob, Y11 – Council Chairs, Chloe and Morgan, IB1 Safia
When ancient meets modern, the results can be hilarious. While trying to make the most of our new reliance on the internet for learning, our Yr 11 Latin class had an unusual task this week: Thoroughly researching the life of Pliny using different sources first and then creating him a social media page reflecting his biography but also Roman life in general.
Yr 11 certainly lived up to the challenge and brought the man back to modern life with a set of his own amusing social media accounts!
The chart looks quite different this week and well done Dafydd for an incredible pull into the lead, topping the Plus Point online learning chart with 394 points. The competition is still close though with just 7 points between 2nd and 3rd position.
With the Plus Point structure now amended to accommodate online education, Deputy Head, Mr Laity has been inundated with replies from teachers highlighting stand out pupil behaviour and work across almost every subject and every year group.
Pupils have been excelling in both the quality and quantity of work they are producing, academically, of course, but also in their commitments to wellbeing and community support. Many of those have been noted above, or in the Prep School, Stars of the Week email, but there have also been a lot of commendations elsewhere also.
Year 10 for their work and attitude across the subjects, especially from Mrs Jessop who said her Latin class: Olivia, Isabella Hancock, Ignacio, Antonio, Lilian and Sophie, have been on time in every Meet! Sophie despite the time difference between the UK and Hong Kong has always handed in her work on time and in fantastic spirits.
A special mention also goes to Mathais, Year 7 who showed exceptional commitment by joining in a Zoom call this week from his hospital bed!
Well done Westbourne, another cracking week. Keep up the great work, we are immensely proud of you all.