Administrators’ Message..

“Achievement, Equity & Innovation”

DONALD COUSENS P.S.

By Phone: (905) 202-8120 Principal: Tracey Cox Vice Principal: Stephen Louca

By E-mail: donald.cousens@yrdsb.ca Administrative Team: Anne Beare/Louisa Lee/Daisy Shen

By Fax: (905)202-8121 Superintendent: Dan Wu (905) 940-7800

On the Web: http://www.yrdsb.ca/schools/donaldcousens.ps Trustee: Billy Pang

December 2015

315 Mingay Ave. Markham, Ontario. L6E 1T5

Dear Parents and Guardians:

Congratulations to our Boys and Girls Intermediate Volleyball teams as they repre-sented our school very well at our recent Area tournaments. Thank you to their coaches, Ms. Bouroukis, Mr. Bilotta, Ms. Kameka and Mr. Tredree. Best wishes to our Junior Volleyball team as they prepare to compete at the upcoming Area event.

December is a busy month. Progress Report Cards are coming home soon. Please look for them on December 11th. We are pleased to offer three school concerts – the Kindergarten Concert is on December 3, the Primary Concert is on December 10th and the Jr/Intermediate Concert is on December 16th.

With the colder weather soon upon us, please ensure your child comes to school dressed appropriately for the weather – hat, boots, scarf, mitts, snow pants (name inside is helpful). We go outside for two recesses every day, unless it is pouring rain or there is a severe wind chill. It is also helpful to have an extra pair of pants and dry socks at school in case a change of clothes is needed.

This month the Donald Cousens Community will be participating in a Food and Sock Drive to support families in our community. We are collecting new socks as well as non-perishable food donations. Socks can be placed on our sock tree in the front hallway. We ask that our families consider donating a food item when they visit the holiday concert. Thank you for helping to support families in need!

As the holidays draw closer, on behalf of the DCPS staff, we would like to wish you and your family a happy holiday season. We’ll see everyone back to school on Janu-ary 4, 2016!

Yours in Education,

Tracey Cox Stephen Louca

Principal Vice Principal

Upcoming Events

For December

December

3 - Kindergarten Concert

10:30

7 - Gr. 3 Gifted Screening

begins

8 - Tribes Day

10 - Gr. 8 Parent Night -

Bur Oak S.S.

10 - Gr. 7 Immunization

10 - Primary Concert 6:30

11 - Funky Sweater Day

16 - Jr/Int Concert 6:30

Dec 19 - Jan 3 - Winter

Holidays

January

12 & 14 - Dental Screen-

ing JK, SK, Gr. 2, Gr. 8

14 - Family Movie Night

15 - P.A. Day (No school)

21 - Parent Council 6:30

28 - Science Night

Kindergarten Registration to Commence January 15, 2016

Kindergarten registration will commence on January 15, 2016 for the 2016-17

school year. Registration forms are available on YRDSB’s website: www.yrdsb.ca.

Children who turn four or five years old during 2016, live within the school

boundary and whose parents are public school tax supporters will be eligible to

register for kindergarten. A kindergarten information session for parents is be-

ing planned for this spring. For more information please visit the YRDSB website

or contact your local school.

French Immersion Information Sessions and Registrations

Information sessions for the French Immersion (FI) program will take place at

French Immersion schools on January 14, 2016 at 7 p.m. Please visit YRDSB’s

website in January 2016 (http://www.yrdsb.ca/Programs/fi/Pages/Program-

Locations.aspx) to find the FI program location for your elementary school loca-

tion. FI registration will begin January 15, 2016. Parents or guardians of Senior

Kindergarten students entering Grade 1 in 2016, and wishing to enrol in the FI

Program, can visit or call the school office and request an Office Index Card - short version. The Office Index Card must be signed by the principal of the

home school. Parents or guardians then take this form, along with one piece of

identification showing their address to the designated FI program location to

register between January 15 and February 12, 2016. This eliminates the need to

provide duplicate enrollment information or to pre-register.

YRDSB’s FI Accommodation Plan provides long-term consistency and equity of access to all students in York Region and will enable YRDSB to

continue to offer the FI program to all who wish to enrol. The FI program will be offered in Dual Track or Single Track settings, in a variety

of configurations. In order to meet community needs and optimize available space in our schools, a community's Grade 1-8 FI program may be

provided over more than one school during the course of a student's FI education. This will allow flexibility in addressing community needs and

the opportunity to use existing space in schools. More information is available on the Board’s website: www.yrdsb.ca. Please note: Some of the

FI accommodation plans will require facility modifications or the development of new schools and will require short-term transition plans that

might include overflow while we work toward the long-term vision. Overflow refers to situations in which the Board directs students to attend

a school other than their community school or optional program for a specific period of time, as defined in Policy #108.

DCPS: Joy to the World Primary Concert

Thursday, December 10th, 2015

6:30 pm in the DCPS Gym

You are invited to come and join our grade 1, 2, and 3 students

in a celebration of our beautiful world through music, dancing,

and artwork.

Students should arrive in their classrooms at 6:15 and the concert doors will also

open at 6:15. We please ask audience members to not leave the concert until the

end of the performance so there are no distractions for the students and parents.

Students can be picked up from their classrooms promptly at the end of the con-

cert.

To ensure all families are able to come and see our performers, we ask families to

limit seating to no more than 4 seats per family.

Junior Intermediate Concert

Wednesday, December 16th , 2015

6:30 pm in the DCPS Gym

On Wednesday December 16th at 6:30 pm, we will be

presenting our Junior Intermediate Concert. So far

our line up will include three concert bands made up

of students from grades 6-8 our newly formed Jazz

Band and our Junior

Intermediate Choir. We will be playing a combi-

nation of seasonal and celebratory music. There

will also be some special presentations. Please

join us in celebrating our artistic accomplish-

ments!

HONESTY (K-4/5) Character Award Winners  November 2015   

Teacher  Winner #1  Winner #2  Special Recognition to… 

Jeyanayagam & Zheng 

Austin  Issac  Lucy 

Mendoza & Lucadamo 

Jorden  Marcus T.   

Vardakas &  Hamidi 

Andy  Ju-Marco   

Baig &  Huang 

Jasleen  Zakariya   

Briggs  Vivian  

Selina  Alex 

Moon  Mariam  

Rowei  Ryan 

Ahmad  Diya  

Sophie   

Cianferro  Anjeli  

Zoey   

Currie  Rayhan  

James   

Tzogas  Isabella  

Zanobia   

MacKinnon  Rian  

Leyla   

Ducheck  Saiynah  

Banushan  Yashica 

Grant  Viona  

William   

Selvarajan  Daniel  

Hamshini  Nathan 

Chan  

Shivam  James F.   

Bouroukis  Rhys  

Anjeli   

HONESTY (5-8) Character Award Winners  November 2015  

Teacher  Winner #1  Winner #2  Special Recognition to… 

MacDonald  Alex Hazen  

Evan  Ethan for Leadership 

McKenzie  Rayana  

Aaron  Jayden for being awesome 

Lyn  Terry  

George  Varagan, Yousuf  for Growth Mindset 

Cherbel  Vinushan  

Casey   

Channa  Priscilla  

Neel  Wesley 

Kameka  Luther  

Alice Chen  Connor for persevering during difficult times 

Saxton  Sarah  

Curtis  Joshua for Helpfulness 

Khakoo  Habissha  

Frank   

Tredree  Silas  

Darrian  Ervin for improved dedication 

Iaboni  Lavan   

Joshua    

Mah  Mathangge  

Roshan  Theo for Courage 

Russell  Hannah  

Janus   

Hetherington  William  

Alex   

Kaufman  Yuhao  

Edward  Lysander for Perseverance 

Tang  Stephan  

Fizzah   

Chen  Shaan  

   

Virdie  Ryan Liu    Allyson for being helpful 

Mark your calendars. Upcoming School Council meeting dates

are as follows:

January 21

February 16

April 7

May 17

June 16

Meetings are in the Learning Commons at 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm.

Babysitting available on request. All are welcome.

Click here for October & November meeting minutes

Contact School Council at: donald.cousens.ps@sc.yrdsb.edu.on.ca

Click for latest Education News

From your School Council

Look out for Movie Night sign up forms & details on costs in early January.

Winter Food Drive

The Winter Break is fast approaching and our school will be collecting non-perishable food

items for the Winter Food Drive. Our food drive will run from Monday November 30th until

Friday December 11th. Please send in donations to your child’s homeroom teacher.

Possible food items include:

Baby formula and baby food

Beans and lentils

Canned fruits and vegetables

Canned fish and canned meat

Cans of soup or hearty stew

Dried pasta and tomato sauce

Macaroni and cheese

Rice

Tetra Pack juices and canned/powered milk

Thank you in advance for your generosity towards others!

The Student Council Team

We had our very first spirit day of the year on Thursday, November 26th: Pajama Day! Need-

less to say, there was an amazing turnout! It was very inspiring to see so many students showing

their school spirit by wearing their pajamas to school! At the end of the day, however, there was

only one winner - Mrs. Mendoza’s Class! We would like to thank everybody who participated in

November's spirit day and extend a special congratulations to Mrs.

Mendoza’s class as well. As the winners of the day, they got to

take home the coveted new DCPS Spirit Trophy... If you have

your eyes on that trophy, make sure to stay tuned for our next

spirit day in December and participate in that one, along with your

classmates.

Yuhao and Krisshny

Message From Our Trustee

It is that time of year when our schools brim with energy and excitement for the many diverse celebra-

tions taking place across our region. I am always happy to join the festivities happening in our schools

and appreciate the efforts of our students, staff and community members to bring the holiday season

alive.

As we wind down 2015, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our parents and guardians for their

support of our students and staff over the past few months. A school community is only as strong and

welcoming as the people who make up that community. Our students, staff and community members

have continued to demonstrate respect, character and commitment in their work and interactions over

the last few months. As a trustee, I consider myself very fortunate to work with such supportive commu-

nity and staff members.

On behalf of all of the trustees and staff of the York Region District School Board, I would like to wish

you and your families a very happy holiday season.

All the best for 2016!

Allan Pang

Donald Cousens Public School will be hosting our first Scholastic Book Fair during

the week of December 7 to 11th. Students will be able to choose from a variety

of Scholastic titles from Pre-kindergarten all the way up to Young Adult. All

children who purchase a book will have the chance to win $25 in books and mer-

chandise from the book fair. All proceeds from the book fair will be used to pur-

chase books for the Learning

Commons. The book fair will be

open on the night of the primary

concert from 3 pm to 8 pm. This

will be an opportunity to join your

child and help them select some

amazing books. I hope to see eve-

ryone at the book fair this coming

week. Thank you for supporting

literacy at Donald Cousens.

Mr. Burbidge