October 19th, 2023
Dear Westheights Families,
In a time where media headlines are filled with darkness, we’d like to share that at Westheights, we continue to celebrate the many gifts of our staff and students and enjoy every day that we are together. Beginning the first week of school, clubs, teams and activities have been running on a weekly basis. None of this would be possible without the tremendous commitment of our Westheights staff, who choose to volunteer their time to make your child’s experience at Westheights a memorable and important step towards high school and adulthood. Please take a moment to share in our pride and excitement in recognizing everything happening at Westheights:
- Eco-Warriors is group that helps look after green bin and blue bin recycling throughout the school
- Boys and Girls touch football teams are winding up the season. Tonight, we will be taking 50 members of our Boys’ football team to Bridgeport Fields to compete in the finals against MacGregor Senior School. Go WARRIORS!!
- Volleyball teams are just beginning
- Choir is underway and students are already working on their performances for Remembrance Day
- Guitar club has started Monday afternoons after school
- Drop-in basketball is offered every Tuesday and Thursday morning before school. We have students lining up by 6:30 in the morning, waiting for the doors to open
- Cross Country Running team has just wrapped up their season
- Morning Announcement Crew
- Library Helpers
- Running Club
- Woodworking Club
- Grade 8 Band
- Grade 7 Art Studio
- Westheights Gender and Sexuality Awareness Club, or GSA
- Black Brilliance Association, or BBA.
- Basketball will begin before the holiday break
- Our ACE (Alternative Curriculum of Education) team is just finishing up several weeks of horseback riding lessons at Pride Stables. Shortly, they will begin baking for their treat cart and new this year, a coffee/tea cart. These treats are for staff and are part of ACE fundraising efforts!
- Nutrition For Learning offers snacks to any and all who need it. We offer fresh fruit, granola bars, cheese strings, yogurts, crackers, and rotate other items in as they become available. Westheights staff applied for and received a $15,000 grant from President’s Choice to help cover the costs of this year’s program.
- Several field trips are being run for Warriors to explore arts and culture in the community.
- In school, we have a number of options to help students with their academic needs including the ROCK (Room of Caring and Knowledge) and homework club in the library each day. Various staff also offer support during nutrition breaks in their homerooms
- We just completed a school-wide fundraiser for Terry Fox, raising almost $1000.
- At the end of September, the Grade 8s visited Wilfrid Laurier University for a tour, to listen to a guest speaker, and learn more about post-secondary opportunities. The same day, Grade 7s participated in a day of team-building activities at Westheights.
- Grade 8 students will soon be invited to learn more about high school magnet programs with visits from high school staff. A Grade 9 information night will be offered in mid-November in the Westheights gym for parents and students to learn more about the transition to secondary school.
- Grade 8 French Immersion students are visiting FHCI this week to learn about the Extended French Program.
- We will be inviting a group called Legacy Builders in to talk about career opportunities in the skilled trades.
- Grade 7 and 8 students will begin participating in the Lift Off to Higher Education program during guidance periods, and familiarizing themselves with a program called myblueprint
- We have completed schoolwide assessment in math, literacy and physical education. Small group support has started with our Special Education team. Several of our staff are also working with a literacy interventionist to better understand the new Language Arts curriculum and embed the Right to Read research and best practices in our classrooms
Join me in thanking our staff for volunteering their time and energy to go above and beyond in supporting our Warriors to be their very best. And it is only the middle of October. Stay tuned!
Danielle Holden and Keith Halley (Proud Westheights administrators)