Middle Years Programme (MYP)
Grades 6 - 10
At Brookes, our Middle Years Programme empowers students by nurturing their creativity, curiosity, and passion as they learn how to learn. The programme focuses on developing essential skills and the confidence students need as future leaders—equipping them to collaborate, guide learning, and contribute meaningfully to the Brookes community. This learning involves challenge and we listen and work with our student body to support and nurture them.
Each Middle Years Programme unit invites your child to explore a Statement of Inquiry: an opportunity to make connections, engage with concepts, and deepen their understanding of content. Our approach to assessment is grounded in a reflective cycle that supports academic growth while also fostering the social and emotional development that is central to the holistic philosophy of the IB Middle Years Programme.
As our school continues to grow, so does our Middle Years Programme. My ambition is supporting our faculty as they to help your child make meaningful connections to both academic and service opportunities, celebrating student talents and amplifying their voices as they prepare to take their place in a global community.
As a parent of two Brookes students, I am deeply invested in our school’s growth. I am committed to helping Brookes continue to define itself as a community where everyone feels welcome, and where we never stop striving to improve. The Middle Years Programme is the heart of our school.
Choosing the Middle Years Programme helps your child as they develop the skills, resilience, and independence that support success in the wide range of opportunities awaiting our students as they continue their studies on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, across Canada and around the world.
Kate Barton, MYP3-5 Coordinator
Fully authorized across the Middle Years Programme, Brookes Westshore provides an academic framework that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between the subject being learned and real-world applications, helping students become reflective critical thinkers.
The MYP has been designed as a coherent and comprehensive curriculum framework that provides academic challenge and develops the life skills of students from the ages of 11 to 16. These years are a critical period in the development of young people. Success in school is closely related to personal, social and emotional well-being. At a time when students are establishing their identity and building their self-esteem, the MYP can motivate students and help them to achieve success in school and in life beyond the classroom. The Program allows students to build on their personal strengths and to embrace challenges in subjects in which they might not excel. The MYP offers students opportunities to develop their potential, to explore their own learning preferences, to take appropriate risks, and to reflect on, and develop, a strong sense of personal identity. (IBO)
Composing an Original Song
Designing an Ecological Home
Organizing a Soccer Tournament
The aims of the MYP projects are to encourage and enable students to:
Students will write a reflection at the end of each activity and will complete a rubric, together with their mentor, measuring the quality of the activity completed. Each academic year culminates in a Service & Action exhibition where students will share their achievements with the wider Brookes community.
Service Projects
Santa’s Anonymous Toy Drive
Every year we collect almost donations for the CFAX Santa’s Anonymous Toy Drive. Students, teachers and staff generously give new toys, books, clothing and other gifts for families in the community who might otherwise receive nothing for Christmas. Competition for house points may motivate many to contribute, but we would like to think that the spirit of the holiday season is the biggest reason for the success of the drive!
Out of the Rain ASA
This year we partnered with Beacon Community Services to support the Out of the Rain Youth Shelter program that provides a warm place and a hot meal to homeless youth in our community. From October to March, our students planned, shopped for and prepared two hot meals a month for as many as 30 youth. They fundraised to purchase groceries, and staff and our local families also helped by supporting the fundraising efforts and donating money. Students said that they felt good about being able to provide comforting and nutritious food to young adults who had no safe home to go to. This is a partnership that we hope will continue for a long time to come!
Jeskin Aerie Seniors Home
In 2020 the school paid tribute to many of the elders in our community by spending time at the Jeskin Aerie Seniors Home in Colwood. At Christmas, several MYP and DP students gave a concert at the home. Later in the year the grade 9s visited the residents several times, playing games and learning about what life was like when they were growing up. Afterwards, they scrapbooked pages and showcased the stories of their new friends in a gallery at the school. We are sure that the students and the seniors have made some special memories of their time together.