Dear DG Families,
Hopefully you enjoyed an extra hour of sleep this morning! Please read on for this week’s news …
Winter is finally upon us!
The rain has finally come … with a vengeance! And temperatures are dropping. Ensuring students come dressed for the weather isn’t just important for playing outside. It’s also important in case of an emergency requiring evacuation of the building.
In addition to ensuring your children come dressed for the weather, we ask that ALL students have a change of clothes at school (yes, even grade 7s). The field can be quite slippery and muddy. In order to avoid us having to call you (possibly at work), to bring your child a change of clothes, please ensure that your child has spare clothes at school that they can change into, just in case. Your child’s spare clothing should be labelled with their name, in a ziplock bag, and left either in the classroom or in your child’s backpack.
The forecast is currently calling for snow tomorrow (Monday). While it is unlikely that school will be cancelled due to snow, should this happen any district wide closure or decisions will be decided and communicated by 7 a.m. on that day. Any announcements will be made via radio stations (CBC AM 690, CKNW AM 980, News AM 1130, Fairchild AM 1470) and via TV stations (CTV BC, CBC, City TV, Global BC). Information will also be posted on the school district website.
Remembrance Day Assembly
We will be holding our Remembrance Day assembly on Thursday, November 10th at 11:00 a.m. Parents and families are welcome to join our assembly. Please enter through the gym doors. Doors will open at 10:50 a.m. We will be having an earlier recess on Thursday in order to accommodate our assembly start time.
Students will be given a poppy prior to the assembly. Please consider bringing a donation for the veterans for the poppy.
Students with Cadets, Brownies, Scouts, or Cubs are welcome to wear their uniform for our assembly.
As well, the Legion has a contest out for students under the categories of poster, essay, poetry, or video. The deadline is November 15th. Please see the link if your child is interested.https://www.legionbcyukon.ca/what-we-do/youth-contests
Parking Reminders (Safety Concerns & VERY Upset Neighbours!)
In the past couple of weeks we have continued to see and hear about unsafe and inconsiderate parking at drop off and pick-up times. For example:
- double parking/blocking other cars in the parent/visitor parking lot
- parking on the sidewalk, blocking pedestrians, parents with strollers, etc..
- parking too far into the road (Russell Drive) in a way that blocks traffic
- parking in a marked crosswalk
- not parking at all and just dropping students off in the middle of the street
- encouraging kids to run across the street instead of using the crosswalk
- and more ….
We have also had complaints from neighbours whose driveway access has been blocked at drop off and pick up times. One neighbour, last week, called VERY upset because she missed an important appointment when she was unable to get her car out of her driveway.
Families, please help us by parking safely (and courteously) when coming to and from school.
Fruit & Veggie Program
Our school is once again involved in the BC School Fruit & Vegetable Nutritional Program (BCSFVNP). This program grew out of an idea formed in 2004 to bring BC grown fruits and vegetables into the classrooom.
The program aims to increase students’
- acceptance of, exposure to, and willingness to try fruits and vegetables
- knowledge and awareness of fruits and vegetables as nutritious foods to eat
- knowledge and awareness of locally grown foods
This program also:
- increases access to local fruits and vegetables in BC schools
- supports BC’s economy and builds relationships between industry partners by working with local growers and distributors to bring fresh BC products to schools across the province
A HUGE thank you to Janelle Lindahl, the parent volunteer who looks after the program for us 🙂
Last week we received our first delivery – carrots! In order for students to participate in the Fruit and Veggie Program, we must have parental consent. The Fruit and Veggie program is one of the on-line permission forms that need to be completed on Parent Connect. If you have not already done so, please go onto Parent Connect and complete the permission form so that your child can participate next time (please note, we must interpret no response as a “no permission”).
The instructions for Parent Connect, along with some helpful links, can be found in this section of our school website. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Ms. Labrosse in the office.
Emergency Preparedness
Thank you to those families who have already returned the $5/student donation towards our Emergency Preparedness plan. These funds are essential in helping to support our Emergency Prep program in order to top up our existing Emergency supplies and to purchase other, much needed, items. If you haven’t yet contributed, and would still like to, donations can be submitted to your child’s teacher or dropped off at the office.
Later this month, our EP Parent Volunteers (Lauren Schellenberg, Manjeet Sidhu and Adrian Wild) will be updating the student emergency tags. It’s a big job, so we thank them in advance!
Crossing Guard Schedule
A huge thank you to our student crossing guards! We appreciate the many students that volunteer their time to keep our school community safe before and after school. As this is such an important role, we ask that students find their own replacements if they are not able to do their crossing guard duty. Please review the updated crossing guard schedule with your child so they understand when their crossing guard duty takes place. Ms Grund is in charge of our Student Crossing Guard program, so please contact her with any questions.
Revised Crossing Guard Schedule Crossing Guard
Neufeld Farms Fall Fundraiser – Deadline TONIGHT!
PAC Meeting – Monday, November 7th 7:30pm
The November PAC meeting will be tomorrow evening in the Library. If you are unable to join us in person, a Zoom link will also be provided. Please watch for this email tomorrow.
Reminder – PAC Fundraisers ongoing throughout the year
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 devongardensin the ‘discount code’ field at the checkout.
- All products on our web store (com) 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 DGPAC and our PAC will earn $8 from each registration. For details, available course dates and online registration, please follow the links below: Babysitting – https://firstaidhero.com/babysitting-courses/online-babysitting-courses/ Stay Safe – https://firstaidhero.com/stay-safe/
Questions? Send an email to pacdevongardens@gmail.com
Thank you,
Your Devon Gardens PAC
Monday, November 7th: PAC meeting, 7:30pm
Thursday, November 10th: Remembrance Day Assembly 11:00am (entrance is through the gym)
Friday, November 11th: Remembrance Day (no school)
Tuesday, November 15th: Grade 7 Volleyball Home Game 3:20pm
Wednesday, November 16th: Neufeld Farms Order pick-up 6:00pm at the school
Thursday, November 17th: Grade 7 Volleyball Home Game 3:20pm
Friday, November 18th: Special Foods Day Cobs Bread & Cinnamon Buns
Tuesday, November 22nd: Grade 7 Volleyball @ McCloskey 3:20pm
Thursday, November 24th: Grade 7 Volleyball @ Gray 3:20pm
Monday, November 28th: Professional Development Day (no school for students)