An incredible Westbourne week.
Alongside two University of Cambridge offers for our IB2 students, the week also marks the start of the new academic year for our first cohort of Westbourne College Sydney IB students, with the Australian academic year running Jan – Dec. Today, whilst we warmly welcome our newest students to the Westbourne family from afar, the future ensures that there will be multiple opportunities for IB student collaboration and exchange. .
Across the rest of the school this week, beyond celebrating a wealth of further top university offers, we’ve seen further excellent engagement with our new online learning platform, Century, multiple artistic endeavours, brilliant FAB School activities and an all-action week in Reception class…as featured.
Well done Westbourne, another great week!
As part of our ‘Getting to Know Us’ series, this week we feature, Miss Jessica Armstrong, English Teacher and Year 6 Form Tutor.
In her own words…
How long have you worked at Westbourne? Since April 2020, at the very start of online learning.
What is your background and experience? Originally I’m from Somerset and began primary teaching in Birmingham in 2012. I moved to Thailand in 2015 where I taught at international schools on the island of Phuket and in the capital city Bangkok, before moving to Wales in 2019.
I have experience in teaching all curriculum areas to all year groups from Nursery to Year 6, and I have now taught English to Years 7 and 8.
What is the best part of working at Westbourne? Meeting students from all over the world, and getting to plan creative and dynamic lessons which make use of the local area, particularly Penarth beach and pier. The small school community also means you get to know everyone really well.
What does being a Form Tutor mean to you? I really enjoy being the Year 6 form tutor. Having a good bond with students makes such a difference to the way they engage with lessons, and their happiness is essential to their success.
What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of taking up new opportunities when I have had the chance. I love a challenge so no two years of my teaching career have been the same.
How do you relax when you’re not at school? Running, I’m currently trying to run 100km for January- and yoga.
What’s the most challenging and the most rewarding part of teaching remotely? The biggest challenge is definitely not being in the same room as the students, and being able to immediately help and support them. Seeing them interacting with each other during Google Meets and finding new and creative ways to present their work has been the most rewarding.
We have had lots of lovely IB Sixth Form celebrations throughout the week, duly toasted with a slice of homemade cake and glass of fizzy elderflower!
Heartfelt congratulations to all our students on their exciting university offers, including Erik who has now received 5 out of 5 Russell Group offers to read Engineering. An extra special mention this week goes out to Dharani and Anthony who have both who have both been offered places at the University of Cambridge. Dharani to read Law and Anthony to read Biological Natural Sciences.
Congratulations IB2…and of course to Head Boy Yaroslav who also enjoyed some cake whilst celebrated his birthday!
As part of the GCSE History syllabus, Year 10 students study the challenging subject of the Holocaust. It was only fitting this week that students commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day, on the 27th of January 2021 during their Westbourne Online lesson with Ms Phillips.
A snapshot of Senior School life throughout lockdown shows just how diverse the range of activities can be from day to day.
With Year 6, first image, continuing their fast fashion project, producing posters to raise awareness of the environmental impact of fashion to trying out some upcycling of their own, David, featured is making a bag out of a t-shirt. With online Economics and Maths lessons further up the school, second image, and online parent’s evenings for Year 8, we’ve been thrilled with student engagement and progress throughout the week.
Learning Live Art this week has seen a riot of colourful jellyfish being produced by some of our youngest pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Excellent work exploring soft pastels, blending line and shape, and using highlighting techniques. Well done everyone!
Balancing screen time with the opportunity to get outside and explore the world around them, FAB School has seen Reception and Year 1 do just that this week.
A fun bird spotting adventure, learning about the different types of birds we can find in our gardens and building feeders to sustain our feathered friends throughout the snow forecast for this weekend.
Year 2 have recently been learning all about famous ice explorers during their History lessons, this week it was time to discover more about Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa who was one of the first men to summit Mount Everest. The children also learnt about how local people respect the mountain and decorate the surrounding areas with Tibetan prayer flags. They made their own and filled them with messages of positivity and good will.
A huge congratulations to our Prep School Stars of the Week!
Early Years: Barnaby for his excellent effort reading tricky words! Awesome job Barnaby!
Year 1: Daniel – for excellent work counting the number of sides on shapes accurately. Well done!
Year 2: Enid for applying herself fully to all our task this week, especially in her science project exploring waterproofing materials!
Year 3: Dylan for his fantastic efforts online including some outstanding maths work on Century. Great work Dylan!
Year 4: Alfie for his effort and commitment with his maths and English work on Century.
Year 5: Chloe for consistently giving 100% in every lesson and for every assignment set. Keep going, Chloe