Dear DG Families,

Allergies at school

A reminder:

We have students and staff at Devon Gardens who have severe, life threatening allergies to nuts, fish/seafood and onions.  We need to ensure that we provide a safe environment for all members of our school community by preventing any allergic reactions.  As such, we are asking for your cooperation in not sending these foods to school.

Additionally, if your child is in a class with a student who has a severe allergy you will have also received a letter from the school outlining what food/products need to be avoided by all students in the class in order to create a safe environment.

If your child has life-threatening allergies, please tell us. With your help, we can do our best to prevent a reaction and to make sure that all of our students are safe, healthy, and able to concentrate on learning.

The Sunny Weather is Here!

Now that the days are getting warmer, please ensure your child comes prepared by wearing sunscreen and by bringing a hat and lots of water to help keep them hydrated throughout the day.  While we do have some bottled water on hand for emergency situations/when a student forgets their water bottle, we have recently been giving out so many bottles of water that we are nearly out of supplies!     Please also ensure your child’s name is on their water bottle(s), so they can be returned in case they get misplaced.

As the weather gets warmer, we also understand that it can be more tempting to hang around after school to socialize with other families and to let kids play together.  We are asking that you please do not do this.  As we see the COVID case count  still hovering around 1000 cases per day, it’s important that we all remain vigilant and do our part to keep ourselves and each other safe.  When coming to school for pick-up and drop-off, please wear a face mask.  Continue to maintain a safe distance, limit interactions with others, avoid gathering and leave the school grounds as quickly as possible.

New Email Addresses Coming

The Delta School District is transitioning to Microsoft Outlook for emails and Teams over the next number of months. Some of our staff members have transitioned to Outlook already and all our staff will have transitioned to Microsoft Outlook by the end of this month.

From Outlook, our emails will end with @deltaschools.ca instead of the @deltasd.bc.ca  If you are sending an email to a staff member, forwarding from @deltasd.bc.ca has been arranged for the rest of the calendar year so there is no need to worry that your email did not get to us.  Our intent in letting you know is so that you can be aware that emails sent to you by school staff members will be coming from @deltaschools.ca address.

Student emails will not be affected at all as Delta is keeping Google and @deltalearns.ca as the primary platform for students.

Dogs on School Grounds

For many of us, dogs are important members of the family and we know that many of our families enjoy bringing their dogs along when they walk their children to and from school.

Some important reminders about dogs at school:

• Dogs must be leashed at all times – our school grounds are not an off-leash area (this includes the gravel field).  While there is an off-leash dog park called “Devon Gardens Park” (an unfortunate and confusing coincidence), it’s not at Devon Gardens Elementary School!  The Devon Gardens off-leash park is located at 11011 McAdam Road.  
• If you are walking your leashed dog on school property, please do so  outside of instructional  hours. Not everyone is comfortable with dogs, so we ask that dog owners not use our grounds during the school day when students/staff might be  outside (eg. PE classes, at recess/lunch, etc…)
• Please clean up after your dog.  If you have forgotten/run out of dog poop bags, we have some!  Many of our staff members carry these with them (eg. Mme Greenhalgh)  and we also have dog poop bags at the office.  We’re happy to give you one, so please just ask!

Please also share these reminders with any of your friends & family members who might also bring their dogs to our school grounds in the evenings/on weekends.

Festival Du Bois

Festival Du Bois is a bilingual and yearly festival, usually taking place at Maillardville in Coquitlam.  This year, everything is online and free!  The theme this year is the sugar shack or cabane à sucre.  Virtual concerts and shows are accessible via the following link, under the tab “Festival 2021 – Grand chapiteau or Petit chapiteau.

https://www.festivaldubois.ca/welcome/

Crossing Guard Schedule

Please see the schedule listed for crossing guards until the end of June!

Crossing Guard Schedule

Our upcoming PAC meeting will be on Monday, April 26th at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom.

Please refer the PAC fundraiser email sent earlier.  The PAC email includes yearbook ordering information, Neufeld Farms ordering information, and the upcoming PAC elections in June.

Thursday, April 22nd:  Term 3 previews sent home electronically

Friday, April 23rd:  PAC Neufeld orders due

Monday, April 26th:  PAC meeting 7:30 p.m. via Zoom

Tuesday, April 27th:  Tentative Class Photos Day