Senior School Stories

Rayner House Day

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Rayner Fundraiser! It was an amazing day - the Rayner bake sale was an absolute hit, and our House trivia assembly was very entertaining. Overall we managed to raise over $1,900, which will go on to support a number of initiatives for the students at Sunrise of Africa School and their broader community.

I would like to give a special shout-out to all the Rayner students who contributed to running the day and highlight the work of our Year 12 Rayner Fundraiser Captains - Victoria, Adya and Tiasha. Go Rayner!

Mr Stefan Sakellaridis

Head of Rayner House

Year 9 PBL 

Our Year 9 students have made a fantastic start to their Community Outreach program, which has now been running for the past three weeks. This initiative has provided valuable opportunities for students to develop real-world skills, strengthen community connections, and grow beyond the traditional classroom setting.

Students have been broken into 5 separate groups and will rotate between these groups fortnightly. 

The Barista Training group developed practical hospitality skills, learning how to prepare quality coffee while building their understanding of customer service as they deliver their freshly made coffees to teachers around the school. 

In Self Defence, students build confidence, resilience, and personal safety awareness through structured physical training sessions. 

The Gardening group focused on sustainability, working alongside the Huntingtower maintenance team to plant indigenous and native species across the school grounds, while also learning about environmental responsibility.

Our Community Care Visits group engaged with local community members, demonstrating empathy and strengthening their communication skills through meaningful service experiences. 

Meanwhile, students working with our Prep classes embraced mentorship roles, developing leadership skills as they supported younger learners. As part of this, they have been teaching nursery rhymes, with Humpty Dumpty and Hey Diddle Diddle already explored, helping to build engagement, confidence, and connections with their younger peers.

It has been wonderful to see our Year 9 students grow in confidence, capability, and community awareness over the past three weeks, and we look forward to their continued progress throughout the program.

Mr Andrew Smale

Year 9 Coordinator

Food In Focus

In Unit 1 Food Studies, we have been studying the topic of First peoples and their foods, land, Indigenous flavours and the ideal diet. We have looked at cooking methods and tools used in traditional food preparation and how food was farmed, including the differences between traditional and European farming methods. Students tasted a range of bush teas and have focused on kangaroo as a nutritional source of protein. 

Enjoy the pictures of our beautifully shaped fusion food of Kangaroo Dumplings.

Ms Robyn MacKinnon

Senior Teacher

Library After Dark

On Thursday, 7 May, the Senior Library hosted our very first Library After Dark event with award-winning author Amy Doak. We were thrilled by the success of this event and look forward to hosting more in the future. 

Last night, our school hosted its first Library After Dark event, featuring guest speaker Amy Doak.  As the best-selling Australian YA author, it was an inspiration to hear her speak about her life and her writing process. Listening to her experiences gave me a greater understanding of what it was to be an author. I especially enjoyed hearing about how she developed her characters and the story behind them. We concluded the night with a Q&A session [hosted by Year 12 student, Tara Gifford], and a book signing, which made the event feel even more special. Overall, it was a great experience, and I am grateful to have been a part of such a memorable evening.  

- Adhrit N. Year 9 

On Thursday, 7 May, we were given the opportunity to meet Amy Doak, the accredited author of the Eleanor Jones series and What have they done to Liza McLean?. During the event, we all had the chance to ask questions, get books signed, and enter a raffle. We listened to a presentation on Amy’s writing journey. Overall this proved to be a very insightful experience, and we learnt a lot about the writing and publication process. 

- Sri S. Year 8