Middle School

May 02

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WNS 8th Graders Tackle Homelessness Through Entrepreneurship

By Hannah Lawrence | Middle School

At Westside Neighborhood School (WNS) – an independent preschool through 8th grade school in Los Angeles’ “Silicon Beach” neighborhood of Playa Vista, middle school students are challenged to affect social change through innovation and ideation. This is a consistent theme throughout the middle school curriculum and culminates in a two-year capstone project. The first half is titled SPLASH, or Solving Problems for Los Angeles Society and Health, during which 7th graders identify and tackle a public health or safety issue facing Los Angeles, and create a proposal to solve it. This then evolves into the 8th grade capstone project, SWIM, or Solutionary Work In Motion, during which our graduation class takes their ideas from the prior year and puts it out into the community.

Three 8th grade students, Beck, Harley, and Rishi, have partnered with an organization called Worthy of Love – a local Los Angeles charity that supports families facing homelessness in both Los Angeles and Houston, TX, through initiatives including hosting birthday parties for children whose families are facing food insecurity and homelessness, who otherwise would not have this experience.

In order to support the charity, the 8th graders took on the challenge of designing and screen printing 150 custom t-shirts to raise both money and awareness, with the motif “Everyone is Worthy of Love”.

Shortly after, the students were delighted to receive news from Worthy of Love that their design will be featured on a t-shirt that will go out to over 1800 individuals facing homelessness.

A representative from the charity said “These will go out to Los Angeles and Houston. They are moms that are incarcerated and at a rehabilitation shelter. They are able to keep their kids out of foster care by staying at the facility. We have the most newborn babies at this shelter. They will have onesies with their design printed on them…It’s really a beautiful sight seeing everyone in the same shirt.”

At WNS, students are challenged to become changemakers, and we are so proud to see these middle schoolers embodying exactly this.

Due to limited supplies, t-shirts are only available for purchase by the WNS school community, however, should you wish to support the charity and the students’ initiative, please visit this link to make a donation today.

Feb 14

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E-News 2/14/20

By Brad Wright | All School, E-News, ECC, Lower School, Middle School

Headline from Brad Zacuto: Upcoming Holiday and Important Work

We have an upcoming four-day weekend in recognition of Presidents’ Day and Faculty In-Service. There is no school and the office will be closed on Monday, February 17.

Tuesday, February 18 is a faculty in-service day. There is no school for students but the office will be open. It is an important day of work for our entire faculty/staff to continue exploring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and how we can bring this back into the classroom to better impact our community. The nine teachers who attended the People of Color Conference will be sharing with other faculty and staff about their experiences and workshops and we will also have a faculty workshop on Neurodiversity. Teachers will also be given much needed time on Tuesday to meet in collaborative groups for curriculum planning. Having both a highly collaborative and project based program requires a significant commitment to faculty planning time, which days like these provide.

Classes will resume on Wednesday, February 19 beginning with K-8 Community Gathering in the MPR at 8:10am, and regular morning schedule in the ECC with the ECC Sing.

DEI Parent/Caregiver Workshop: Friday, 2/21

Following Community Gathering (8:45-9:45am) in the 5400 Building Conference Room

“The Importance of Embracing Anti-Racist Culture in Our Community”

In this workshop, we will be discussing culture and what is believed to be the “cultural norm.” We will begin to identify, name and deconstruct the cultural norms and standards – a first step to making room for a truly multi-cultural community that works toward social justice.

PLEASE RSVP FOR THIS EVENT HERE

Sponsor the Gala

Great Opportunities Available! CLICK HERE. Sponsorships help underwrite the cost of this great event. Please consider our sponsorship opportunities and help make this a memorable event and a successful night for our school.

Classroom Newsletters

Click here to view grade-level newsletters for this week. This year, teachers in grades K-5 are creating weekly newsletters to showcase what’s happening in their classrooms. Middle school sends out newsletters once per trimester.

Recent E-Blasts & E-News

Community Gatherings

This section of the E-News is to point your attention to the amazing presentations, performances, and community building that occur twice a week during Community Gatherings. As a reminder, unless noted otherwise, Community Gathering begins at 8:10am and generally concludes at 8:30am. It is located in the MPR of 5401 Beethoven (West Campus). All parents, ECC-8, and their family and friends are invited to attend. Parents must wear a lanyard and are encouraged to park in the back lot of 5401 Beethoven Street, but must move their car immediately following as PE classes begin immediately afterward.

From time to time, we live stream Community Gatherings for parents to view remotely, through our school’s Vimeo account. This is the private URL to access it: https://vimeo.com/event/1763 and the password is: jets2019. To view an archive of the livestream events, use this link: https://vimeo.com/album/5685461 and the password is: jets2019. If a Community Gathering is going to be streamed, an asterisk* will appear next to the date in this section. Please note, all Community Gatherings are subject to change.

Wednesday, February 19: African American Heritage Month Presentation; CAIS Choir Video
Friday, February 21: African American Heritage Month Presentations; Service Elective Presentation; Ella F. Plays Violin

Community News

Thursday, March 12, 7-8:30pm, at Sequoyah School: SoCal POCIS Rethinking Diversity – Invisible Diversity: Supporting our Asian American and Pacific Islander Students

Common Sense Media Tip of the Week

Though kids study history in school, they don’t always hear every important story or learn about all the people who changed the course of history. And when it comes to books and movies, we still have room to grow when it comes to surfacing media that reflects the lives of African Americans.

To deepen your kid’s understanding of history, you can check out books for little kids, tweens, and teens. And to introduce a critical conversation about racism, you can watch these movies together to get the discussion started. This list has a movie for all ages about a wide variety of African American experiences. But don’t stop there: Finding media that represents all kinds of people matters both to kids whose lives that media reflects and those who need a window into a world other than their own. So, take a little time to consciously diversify your family’s media diet, and keep your conversations going.

Parent Group

WNS Auction

DONATE NOW! Our big main Auction is scheduled for April 16-25, 2020. We are busy collecting items…so please donate now to help us make this the biggest and best Auction ever! Donate what you love to do or where you love to go! Restaurants, Hotels, Theatre Tickets! Be creative!

Main auction item donations are due by March 27, 2020.

If you want to connect with the Auction Committee to brainstorm with you feel free to email auction@wns-la.org.

Auction Donation Link

2019-20 Auction Donation Letter

Party Book: Building Community One Party at a Time!

Have you signed up to Party Yet? Click Here now to register and sign up now! Look at what’s coming up that still has space available in February!