Community Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

The year is flying by quickly, and we are proud of all the amazing progress our students have made since the beginning of school. While we are pleased with their academic and character growth, we want to expand on the latter's importance to us as educators in a tight-knit community such as DMP. 

Our Vision and Mission state: empowering students to create a better world, challenging minds, nurturing character, and respecting individuality. These drive our instruction and are goals for where we hope all of our students will be when they leave Del Mar Pines. With this in mind, we would like to bring your attention to three essential terms we use with our students to harness these qualities: diversity, inclusion, and belonging. 

Diversity is respecting and accepting one another's differences based on ethnicity, age, family makeup, education, religion, etc. 

Inclusion is the action that precedes diversity, where individuals from diverse backgrounds are accepted and welcomed both culturally and socially. 

Belonging is including and respecting each other’s differences to gain acceptance. 

As we move into the second half of the school year, we have two goals for our school so that we can learn, grow, and continue supporting one another as classmates and class parents at DMP.

The first goal is that our classrooms and school are inclusive. Our DMP community reflects cultural diversity, ethnic diversity, family diversity, and religious diversity. While we are working hard to nurture this environment at school, it would be great to continue this teaching at home. You can support us by reading books with your child that acknowledge differences and promote inclusion by looking for opportunities for students and families to connect outside school. We also encourage you to listen and talk with your children about how we are all similar and different, about the need to feel safe and be treated fairly, and to take action to find ways to advocate for one another. 

The second goal is that our school is a place where students and families feel part of our tight-knit community. We want our students to feel connected, so they can rely on each other as they grow, but we also wish for our parent community to support one another as family units and promote positive, long-lasting relationships throughout the years. 

We are proud to devote time and effort to your children by staying committed to our mission and vision to make Del Mar Pines an incredible place to learn, grow, and thrive in a safe environment.