Vale Deborah Joy Powell

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Deborah Joy Powell, which occurred on Saturday evening. Beloved mother to Jamie, Tyler and Jordan and as many of you know twin sister of Tracey Atkinson. Deb worked at St Christopher's from 2024 until last year when she fell ill.

Tracey has been a stoic support and carer for Deb through the challenging time of her illness over the past year. Deb fought a brave battle against her illness and she is now at peace. Our sincere condolences, prayers and thoughts are with Deb's family, Tracey and her loved ones through this difficult time. Details of the celebration of life for Deb and a tribute page can be found here.

A contingent of staff will attend the funeral on Friday so please be aware there will likely be some adjustments to the usual classroom arrangements for the afternoon.

Tracey is very grateful for the wonderful support she has received from many families at St Christophers and the school community as a whole.

Mother's Day

Last week we celebrated our wonderful mothers. Our students had the opportunity to purchase gifts for their mothers from our Mother's Day Stall which was organised by our Parents Association. They did an amazing job assisting the students in this process and I would like to thank the team for their support. Special mention to Tracey for making and donating all those cookies and knitting all those handbags to sell at the stall, which was so very generous of her!!

On Friday we celebrated our mothers with a special mass and it was wonderful to see some families joining us in the celebration.

Our Year 1/2B provided an entertaining assembly for Mother's Day also. We hope all mums and mother figures were celebrated and enjoyed a special day on Sunday.

Please view some additional photos of these events here.

When the breach is not really about the breach

You may be aware from news reporting that almost 9000 education providers around the world using the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) have been impacted by a cybersecurity incident.

MACS wrote to inform me that 'MACS Learn' uses the Canvas LMS. The Victorian Department of Education also delivers mandatory Protecting Children: Reporting training and MARAM on the Canvas LMS.

Canvas is operated by Instructure, a third-party provider used by government departments, universities and education organisations worldwide.

Instructure has advised that information involved in the breach may include:

Names
Email addresses
Student identification numbers
Messages exchanged within Canvas.

Other personal information such as passwords, dates of birth, government identifiers or financial information are not stored in Canvas.

Instructure has currently taken Canvas offline. There is no indication that any family data has been breached, however this incident highlights the importance of being vigilant about not responding to unexpected emails or messages. An interesting article about this data breach with some helpful tips for families can be found here. Please remember and remind your children the following taken from the article:

'A school email is for school - Not for gaming, shopping, social media, or signing up to apps and platforms that have nothing to do with learning, because every one of those external sign-ups is a small private door that ties back to the school’s identity system, and every one of those doors will eventually be tested by someone.'

Prep Fire Ed

This week, we were lucky to welcome firefighters from the Vermont South Fire Station to our classroom! Students learnt about safe and unsafe fires, what to do in the event of a fire (“crawl down low, go go go!”), who to call in an emergency, and the important role firefighters play as community helpers. The children were also very excited to see what firefighters look like when they are fully kitted up in their safety gear. We look forward to their second visit next week! Please view some photos here.

Student Representative Council (SRC)

The Student Representative Council (SRC) is being introduced to help give students a voice within our school community. It is an opportunity for students to share ideas, provide feedback, discuss student perspectives, and help contribute positively to school life.

Each class will have two Student Representatives.
Students may nominate themselves if they are interested in being part of the SRC.
Classroom teachers will develop a process at each level to appoint the two representatives from the nominations.
Representatives will serve for one term, allowing more students the opportunity to participate throughout the year.
New representatives will be selected at the beginning of each term.
SRC representatives will meet with a nominated staff member a few times each term.

During meetings, students may:

Share ideas or concerns from their class
Discuss ways to improve school life
Provide feedback about activities or events
Work together to solve problems or suggest improvements

Responsibilities of SRC Representatives

SRC representatives are expected to:

Listen respectfully to the ideas and opinions of others
Represent the views of their classmates, not just their own opinions
Share important information from SRC meetings with their class
Help encourage positive communication within the classroom
Provide a further avenue for student voice on child safety

At times:

Representatives may simply report information back to the class.
Other times, classes may hold a short class discussion to gather opinions or feedback for the representatives to bring back to the SRC.

Why We Are Starting SRC

The SRC aims to:

Give students a meaningful voice
Encourage leadership and responsibility
Promote student involvement in school life
Build communication between students and staff
Help students feel heard and valued within the school community

Student Awards