It may seem unusual for a school to congratulate students for the simple act of coming to school, a legal requirement, after all, however, in the current covid climate, the enthusiasm, personal discipline, energy and commitment to not only learning but to genuine acts of thoughtfulness and kindness is truly noteworthy. In our minds of a hearty round of congratulations are well deserved by all at the end of quite a unique half term!
From hero’s welcomes back to school, all-weather PE, school council elections and gravity-defying science it has been another action-packed Westbourne week.
Well done Westbourne – we wish you all a relaxing half-term break, plenty more action awaits on your return!
The Student Council is a key part of Westbourne Senior School life with its primary role to ensure that the opinions and feedback of the entire student body are reflected in the school’s wider planning process. Advising on a broad range of day to day issues and helping with useful suggestions, from new uniform feedback, activities and events to name just a few, they are an essential part of our community.
After a student election process, we are delighted to announce our new Student Council for 2020/ 2021, pupil run and ably led by Rochelle and Lilian in Year 11.
Hiba, David, Koto, Thomas, Caleb, George, Evie, Mathias, Eva, Yong, Oscar, Tom, Taonga, Oracene, Aiden
Off to a flying start, the first meeting, via Google Classroom to ensure students remained in class bubbles, focused on tackling the challenge of ‘normality’ in school during the covid crisis.
A plethora of ideas came forth and it has been great to see the first already having been implemented with a Halloween Half Term dress up day….fabulous images below!
We very much look forward to seeing further student-led initiatives throughout the next year and congratulate the whole Student Council on their election.
Mrs Allen and her team have been ensuring that a spot of Welsh weather doesn’t stand in the way of keeping fit!
As Year 5 & 6 ably demonstrate, skipping techniques can be perfected just as well under a gazebo!
Well done everybody on some great skill improvements and for not allowing the autumnal weather to dampen the Westbourne spirit!
It was Year 6’s turn this week to take a trip to our local seafront, this time as part of a geographical study of the surrounding area, specifically looking at both business and tourism.
Ever mindful of the environmental impact of climate change, students turned their hand to beach cleaning to help prevent waste from heading off to sea!
Learning about ‘forces’ during science studies this week provided Year 5 with the perfect opportunity to experiment with gravity.
A huge amount of hands on fun was had with a very successful gravity defying practical!
This week it has been Year 4’s chance to explore with FAB School, with a beach focused trip to Barry Island.
Learning all about benthic animals and where they might be found, they headed off, bucket and spades in hand, to dig and search for as many examples as possible! Another fabulous FAB School learning adventure.
Benthic animals are the organisms who live at the lowest level of a body of water.
P4C is an acronym Prep and Middle Years parents are likely to become familiar with as the academic year progresses.
As a school committed to developing critical thinking skills, culminating in Theory of Knowledge studies throughout the International Baccalaureate Diploma, where better place to start developing those essential life skills than with our youngest students.
This week we enjoyed thought provoking conversations with Year 3 as they discussed the differences between noticing, hearing and listening, debating questions such as ‘can you hear someone without listening’ and which is more important – hearing or listening?’
We look forward to further debates in P4C as the term continues.
It is oft said, but at Westbourne, it is truly meant, our school community really is the core of our school.
As such we have been delighted to welcome one of our bravest pupils, Nye, back to Westbourne Prep this week after a prolonged illness. We have enjoyed seeing Nye’s smiling face on Zoom for many months during his recovery, however, nothing beats having him back in class… his fellow pupils couldn’t agree more, as they celebrated his return!
Coinciding with Nye’s return was our first inter-house quiz, which as well as providing a secondary celebration, also allowed our new Prep House Captains to perform their first task.
Ffion, Peter and Chloe all more than rose to the challenge organising their teams and congratulations to Llewelyn for taking first place!
We’ve seen excellent work across the Prep School this week and as always, it is a challenge to choose just one star! Congratulations all on your achievement this week.
Early Years: ⭐ Isaac – for counting accurately using a number line. Isaac took his time and worked really hard and concentrated on the task in hand. Well done Isaac!
Year 2: ⭐ Isabelle for her enthusiastic and well thought out answers to our discussions in class.
Year 3: ⭐ Tomos for his exceptional start to his time at Westbourne and superb attitude and helpful nature. Well done Tomos!
Year 4: ⭐ George for perseverance when using a compass to draw circles in maths.
Year 5:⭐ Malia – for writing an excellent explanation text on a new prototype of a mode of transport for the future!
As well as a spot of seasonal pumpkin carving in the Prep School this week, a huge thank you goes out to our newly elected Senior School Student Council for this weeks ‘Half Term Halloween’ dress up day…we’ve seen the halls filled with a whole host of fabulous costumes….ghouls, witches…and bananas galore!
Whilst keeping within ‘bubbles’ and respecting the distancing measures it has been great to see everyone get behind ensuring that school life remains as normal as possible…well done everyone…and on that note, we wish you all a very Happy Half Term!
With children growing at such a speed, some may have found that their lovely new school uniform has lasted hardly a half term before needing the next size up.
With that in mind, we are pleased to announce a pre-loved Westbourne school uniform initiative, operated via a Facebook Page which will give parents the opportunity to off load and buy good condition pre-loved uniform for Nursery, Prep and Senior School.