Victoria West Elementary PAC

Vic West Elementary

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2016 Wild & Wacky Walkathon

Our second annual Wild & Wacky Walkathon was a huge success! Students collected over $10,000 in pledges and walked their hearts out on Friday, May 6th, dressed in their wildest and wackiest outfits.


Fundraising incentive prizes this year included wacky colour-changing water bottles, gift cards for Spiral Cafe, passes for Esquimalt Recreation, market bucks for the Esquimalt Farmers Market, Vic West Elementary t-shirts and movie passes for Cineplex. There was also a grand prize of a 1-year family membership to the Royal BC Museum.


The wackiest class competition, as judged by former Vic West custodian Daryl, was another tie again this year – Mr. Kennedy’s class and Ms. Prince’s class walked away with the wacky gold trophy to share between their classrooms.


The pizza party lunch prize goes to the class that raised the most money, and this year that prize went to Ms. Gerber’s class. They’ll be enjoying a lunch from Hot House Pizza in Westside Village.


The student that raised the most money brought in over $600, and it was a touching moment in the walkathon assembly when he stood up proudly as the whole school applauded his achievement.


Congratulations, everyone, and thank you to all our volunteers who helped make this year’s walkathon such a huge success!


Here are some fun photos from the event:

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Vic West Honoured at VCPAC Awards

Our small
and mighty school has yet another reason to be proud! Vic West Elementary teacher,
John DiCicco, along with Esquimalt High School teacher, Trevor MacKenzie, are the
recipients of the Parents Choice Award in this year’s Victoria Confederation of
Parent Advisory Councils (VCPAC) annual awards.

Mr. DiCicco
and Mr. MacKenzie were recognized at a ceremony Tuesday night at Lambrick Park
Secondary School for the literacy program they developed between Mr.
MacKenzie’s grade 12 English students and Mr. DiCicco’s grade 2 class. Students
paired up to read together and explore story-telling, culminating in a story
book told and illustrated by the younger students and written up and assembled
by their grade 12 buddy. This meaningful program between our two schools was such a success after one
semester that it was expanded to include two more classrooms at Vic West.

This
district-wide honour was the most-nominated category at this year’s VCPAC
Awards, and our school PAC is incredibly proud that this wonderful program is
part of the learning that goes on at Vic West.

Read more
about this inter-school literacy program and the lessons that were learned by kids big and
small (and their teachers, too!) on Mr.
MacKenzie’s blog.

We were also
celebrating our PAC President, Mercedes Calvert, on Tuesday night! Mercedes was
recognized as a nominee for the Gail Edwards Memorial Award, an honour that
recognizes a parent or guardian in our school district who has made a
significant contribution to improve the quality of life in the school, who
also gives unconditionally to the success of our children, and who inspires others
to make a commitment to volunteering. Mercedes is all of these things and so much more,
and we are incredibly fortunate to have her on our team of parent volunteers at
Vic West.

Congratulations
to Mercedes, John and Trevor!
 

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Principal Jana Dick wins district-wide award!

Principal Jana Dick of Victoria West Elementary wins the School Partnership Award, presented by the Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (VCPAC). Left to right: Vic West PAC President Mercedes Calvert, Principal Jana Dick, VCPAC Chair John Bird, Vic West PAC Communications Director Amy Bronee.


They say “Vic West is best” and this week we were reminded of how true that is when our school principal received a distinctive award. Principal Jana Dick was presented with the School Partnership Award for her work in building strong relationships within the school community. The award, presented by the Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (VCPAC), recognizes an administrator who champions authentic partnership in his/her school based on shared vision and active collaboration. This award is open to any administrator in the Greater Victoria School District who:

  • practices active partnership with parent leaders; 
  • actively promotes and models partnership in the school; 
  • facilitates the development of vibrant school culture based on the core values of students, staff and parents; 
  • creates opportunities for shared decision-making; and 
  • uses formal and informal processes and structures to support authentic partnership between staff and parents.


Despite being in the role of principal for just half a school year, Ms. Dick has been a positive force at Victoria West Elementary for 15 years. She arrived at the awards ceremony Tuesday night directly after cheering on Vic West students at the district track-and-field meet. Two members of the Vic West PAC were on hand at Spectrum Community School to congratulate Ms. Dick on her award. Vic West kindergarten teacher, Nicole Stead, was also one of the nominees in the Parents Choice Award category. Congratulations to them both!