Dear DG Families,

We have such an amazing school community at Devon Gardens, and as we close out the school year, I want to extend a heartfelt thank all to all of our staff, students, and families for the support, cooperation and partnership throughout this school year.   Working together and the positive relationships we’ve built makes our school such an amazing place to be!

And, speaking of AMAZING ….

The PAC raised over $3000 at this year’s Family Fun Night (the food truck donations haven’t yet all come in)

Way to go, DG PAC!   And thank you, families, for all of your support and contributions.

Last Day of School

A reminder that the last day of school for students is Thursday, June 27th and students will be dismissed at 10:15 a.m. 

Please ensure you have communicated this to/made arrangements with your daycare and child care providers as needed.

The last day for staff is Thursday, June 28th.    The school office will be closed at 4:00 pm on June 28th and will reopen at 8:30 am on August 26th.

To help celebrate the end of the school year and get your summer started with a sweet treat, at dismissal on Thursday (10:15 am), our amazing PAC will be setting up a cash-only concession in the undercover area.

Term 3 Learning Updates

Term 3 Learning Updates (report cards) will be available online, through Parent Connect, on Thursday, June 27th.   We will send an email to let all families know when they have been posted and are ready for viewing.

If you have requested that your child’s teacher provide you a printed copy, it will be sent home with your child at dismissal on Thursday, June 27th.

If your child has an Individual Education Plan (IEP), Learning Plan, or Annual Instructional Plan (AIP), the Learning Support Team teachers will be sending home a paper copy of these plans with students on Thursday.

Year Books

Yearbooks will be sent home, Monday, with students who have ordered them.  Grade 7 students received theirs on Friday.

Lost and Found

Although many families came by and claimed their long long items, there are still quite a few things in our lost and found.  Please encourage your child to come and take a look for any items belonging to them (and/or come on by, yourselves, after school).  There are only a few days left to reclaim any lost items.    Unclaimed items will be given to a donation centre before the end of this week.

School Garden Summer Watering Volunteers

Thank you to those families who volunteered to help water the garden over the summer.

We are still in need of a few more families to help water the garden over the summer.

 If you are willing to help out with watering this summer (particularly if you live nearby!), please email Mme Hamilton at hhamilton@deltaschools.ca

On Wednesday, at 1:50pm, Mme Hamilton will be doing a quick tutorial/walk-through for the volunteers.     If you have signed up to help but cannot make it at that time, please contact Mme Hamilton to let her know so alternate arrangements can be made.

Staff Farewells

At the end of every school year, we unfortunately have to say goodbye to some of our staff members.   This year is no exception.

We would like to thank the following staff who will be moving on.  This list may change between now and the fall, however, we would like to share with all of you the staff we know are leaving at this time.

Please help us in thanking and saying a fond farewell to the following staff members; we wish them all the best as they transition into new positions at other schools (or, in Ms. Syens case, retirement!):

2024-2025 School Year

Will you be somewhere else next school year?  If you are moving and are not planning to return to Devon Gardens in the fall, please make sure that you let our office know.

Optional School Supplies Ordering through SchoolStart for 24/25

We are trying something new for school supplies for next year and are offering parents the opportunity to purchase quality standardized school supplies through School Start for the 2024/2025 school year.

This is optional and orders will not be handled through the school, but rather with this company directly.

3 WAYS TO ORDER:

1. ONLINE: You can place your order online at www.schoolstart.ca.
   

   Our site is best compatible with Firefox or Chrome.

2. PHONE: You can call our customer service centre at 1-800-580-1868 to place your order over the phone.

3. EMAIL:   You can print and fill out the order form and return to our office via email to: info@schoolstart.ca.

HOME DELIVERY:

The supplies will be packaged and delivered directly to your house. If you have a P.O. Box, please use your street address (the address you would give 911 in an emergency).

Because the kit (s) are delivered to your home, you will have the ability to:

Pre-label your child’s supplies

Add supplies to your order for home use or for your child in another school

SCHOOL START CALL CENTRE IS AVAILABLE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR NEED ANY ASSISTANCE WITH ORDERING: 1-800-580-1868 Email: info@schoolstart.ca

2024-25 School Supply Lists can also be found on our School Website

Please note we have both French and English listed separately.

https://dg.deltasd.bc.ca/school-supplies/


Families can purchase school supplies directly from School Start (per the information above), or use the same list to purchase your supplies wherever you like.   Remember, you don’t need to purchase the entire list of new items every year.  If your child already has supplies that are in good order from a previous year – please save money and the environment.  For example, you don’t need to purchase a new ruler, French-English dictionary, calculator, etc.. every year.   If the one(s) from last year are in good condition, use them again!

Family Fun Night survey

The PAC would like to thank everyone for their support attending Family Fun Night!  We’ve created a brief survey for families who attended. All responses are anonymous and will help us plan future Family Fun Nights. If you have a few minutes, please help us by completing the survey.

 

 

 

 

Kinder Books

Introducing the Kinder Books Loyalty Program for schools! This year-long fundraising program is designed to help schools earn credit towards purchasing books for their school library.

Here’s how it works: for every net book purchase made at Kinder Books, the school will earn 10% of the purchase amount towards a credit at our store. At the end of the fundraiser, we will notify the school of their credit amount. The school can then decide to use the credit at the beginning of the new school year or at the end of the calendar year.

The best part? This program applies to all book purchases at our store, including special orders for kids and books for adults. Plus, orders can be placed online at www.kinderbooks.ca, making it easy for grandparents or other family members who live out of town to participate. Simply mention your school’s name at checkout, and we’ll credit your school accordingly.

Online orders can be picked up at the store during business hours or shipped through Canada Post

 

Return-it Express

PAC has created a school fundraising account. To participate, simply bring your containers to the depot in sealed, clear bags, and enter the registered phone number, 604-581-6185, into the Express kiosk. You will be prompted to select the number of bags you’re dropping off, the kiosk will automatically print the same number of sticker tags displaying our PACs unique Express account code. Tag each of your bags with a sticker tag and drop the bags off in the designated Express drop-off area to be counted. For a list of Return-it Express location visit https://www.return-it.ca/locations/express/

Cobs Bread Dough Raiser Program

This program enables us to raise money for our school throughout the year! Be sure to mention Devon Gardens Elementary (or code 7806) each time you make a purchase at COBS Bread Scott 72 Centre; they will donate 10% of your purchase back to our school.

Level Ground Trading

Level Ground is a BC business that works with fair trade coffee, tea, dried fruit and spice producers.

Supporters enter the code devongardens in the ‘discount code’ field at the checkout.
All products on our web store qualify for the fundraiser. Orders must be $40 or more. These orders also qualify for free shipping to most addresses in Canada (there is a shipping fee on all orders shipped to NU/NT/YK). All orders are paid for through our web site and shipped directly to your supporters. No need to collect orders or distribute products to households.
Your fundraising amount is 20% of total sales.  So on a $100 order your school will receive $20.

Online Stay Safe & Babysitting Courses

Offered through First Aid Hero. When registering use promo/coupon code “DevGardens24” and our PAC will earn $5.00 from each registration. For details, available course dates and online registration, please follow the link: www.FirstAidHero.com

Questions? Send an email to pacdevongardens@gmail.com

Delta School District Summer Programs

Registration closes June 27th at 2:00 pm

Register here: https://www.deltasd.bc.ca/programs/continuing-education/summer-learning-registration/

New Restrictions on Cellphones/PEDs in Schools, effective July 1st

In January 2024, the provincial government announced plans to restrict the use of cellphones and personal electronic devices in schools. Research shows that frequent cellphone interruption in the classroom, social media platforms with addictive algorithms and predators who seek to exploit young people all present significant risks to young people. The district emailed all families on June 20 regarding this new restriction, which comes into effect on July 1, 2024. Please click here to read the letter: https://district.public.deltasd.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/DS-Letter-home-Personal-Digital-Devices-June-20-2024.pdf

Here is the District’s updated procedure around cell phones and PEDs:

https://district.public.deltasd.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Procedure-145-Use-of-Personal-Digital-Devices.pdf

Reminder – Electric Scooters

A reminder that electric kick scooters should not be used by students travelling to school or while on school grounds.  Despite their popularity in our province, electric kick scooters remain illegal for use on public roads, bike lanes and sidewalks across most of B.C., except in a handful of cities that are taking part in a pilot program to test the use of them. The City of Delta is not part of the pilot program. Even in the pilot program cities, it is illegal for a person under 16 years of age to operate an electric kick scooter. You can view the provincial rules here: Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Project Regulation.

Are you interested in hosting an International Student?  Or, do you know of a family who might be?  Delta School District International Programs is currently recruiting homestay families for international students coming to Delta School District for September 2024. They will arrive from all over the world and have a strong desire to be in Delta.

The reimbursement for hosting will be increasing to $1,150 per month as of September 2024. Multiple students from different nationalities can be hosted in one home. The majority of students in the homestay program are from Germany, Japan, Spain, Italy, and Brazil. At the moment, more that 20 different countries are represented in the homestay program.

Many are looking for a family connection and being a part of a family during their stay in Delta. Their study periods range from 3 months to half a school year, to a full school year, to multiple years.

We have two 3-week summer programs where host parents welcome younger English learners into their home. It is a great way for students to see what school (and life) in Delta is like and for new homestay families to get a small sample of what hosting is like. Reimbursement for each 3-week program is $850 per student.

If you are interested in hosting, please reach out to homestay@godelta.ca. If you are not able to host but know of a family who can, please send them our way. There are referral bonuses available for referring families.

Dear Students, Parents, and Caregivers:

As we have reached the end of the 2023/2024 school year, I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to every student, parent and caregiver for their hard work and dedication. I share my deep gratitude to everyone who is a part of our greater school community. I hope you can take some time this month to reflect on your accomplishments this past year.

As a parent, I understand the need to keep building better education opportunities while creating spaces where all students and staff feel safe and welcome. I am grateful for everyone who has played a role in making this possible in the past year by working towards issues like student safety, inclusivity, and greater engagement in our schools. This includes making school environments safer by helping to support access zones around schools so BC’s K-12 students and staff will be protected from any disruptive protests or harassment. Ensuring everyone can access schools without fear or intimidation continues to be a top priority.

To keep kids safe and healthy, we have also asked school districts to have policies in place by next school year that will restrict personal digital devices in schools so students can focus on their education. While technology is certainly a part of our lives, we are working towards providing kids and their families with the tools they need to develop healthy habits with devices.

Before we enter our summer holiday, I would also like to take this moment to highlight some of the other progress we have made this school year.

While schools across British Columbia are facing unprecedented enrolment growth, the Province has taken urgent action to make more spaces for students in fast-growing communities by funding new schools and expanding our current schools through prefabricated additions. Prefabs are new to most of the school districts in the province, and we have funded several projects this past year as an innovative construction option to build school additions faster as we welcome more students.

We have also remained focused on supporting students through initiatives like new early literacy screening for students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 which will begin to roll out in 2024/2025 school year. This includes funding for provincial outreach teams that will provide resources for students to support their progress and learning development.

Our government also understands that families are in much need of extra support due to the rising costs of living that are impacting all countries globally. This year, each school district received replenished funding through the Student and Family Affordability Fund to help support students and families who need it most to cover the cost of school related expenses. This is on top of the Feeding Futures funding to help expand school food programs throughout the province.

As the Minister of Education and Child Care, it has been one of my greatest honours to see the growth of our school communities throughout the year. These changes are a testament to all your hard work this year and I hope you feel proud of the milestones you have reached. I look forward to an even more exciting upcoming school year. To those graduating this year, congratulations and all the best with your future endeavours!

Once again, I am deeply grateful for your amazing work. Have a wonderful summer break!

With gratitude,

Rachna Singh

Minister of Education and Child Care

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

Fraser Valley Library Summer Reading Club

Join Fraser Valley Regional Library’s Summer Reading Club – World of Curiosities! It’s free and there’s a club for everyone – kids, teens and adults! Join in-person or online at www.fvrl.ca and track your reading. You can read anything – novels, picture books, information books, graphic novels, audiobooks, e-books, websites – it all counts. Sign up starts June 21.

Monday, June 24th: Div 8 Field trip to Annieville Park

Tuesday, June 25th: Grade 7s to Central City Funpark

Tuesday, June 25th: Div 2 & 11 to Sungod Pool

Wednesday, June 26th: Year End Assembly 9:15am

Wednesday, June 26th: Tutorial for Summer Watering Volunteers, 1:50pm

Thursday, June 27th: Last Day for Students, dismissal 10:15am

Thursday, June 27th: PAC concession sale 10:15am

Thursday, June 27th: Term 3 Student Learning Updates available online

Thursday, June 27th: deadline to register for School District Summer Learning programs, 2:00pm  https://www.deltasd.bc.ca/programs/continuing-education/summer-learning-registration/

Friday, June 28th: Admin Day for School Staff

Happy Summer, Dragons!