In the Secondary School, worship is predominantly conducted in Houses. House Reflections are held on a three-week cycle throughout the school year, while Houses share in the Eucharist at least twice during the year. Reflections are also held throughout the first term with Year 7s before they join in with their House Groups later in the year.

In Secondary, each year level studies a different Christian Education Programme course. These courses are Australian written and endeavour to reveal the truths and foundations of the Christian faith in the everyday lives of young people. In Senior Secondary, classes can become more tutorial like with studies in world views, religions, overseas service learning, and moral and ethical issues.

Service Immersion Tours have become integral to Service Learning and are designed to inspire the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and social development of our students. Immersion is designed to deeply involve participants beyond their comfort zones, cross-culturally and through new relationships. These experiences often lead to the transformation of students’ intellectual and emotional view of the world.

Cambodia Walkabout

*The term Walkabout comes from the Australian Aboriginal. The idea is that a person can get so caught up in one’s work, obligations and duties that the truly important parts of one’s self become lost. It is at this time that one must go on walkabout. All possessions are left behind (except for essential items) and one starts walking. Metaphorically speaking, the journey goes on until you meet yourself. Once you find yourself, you sit down and have a long talk about what one has learned, felt and done in each other’s absence. One talks until there is nothing left to say – the truly important things cannot be said. If one is lucky, after everything has been said and unsaid, one looks up and sees only one person instead of the previous two.* Source Unknown

The School commenced its Overseas Service Learning journey in 2012, when two staff and six students went with the ASC Reachout Pilgrimage to Manila, in the Philippines, to work with ‘informal’ communities. The School continued to be a part of this program until the end of 2015. Then following an exploratory visit by Fr Noel and Mrs Helen Oakey, coordinated with the help of ABM, the School entered a three year MOU with the Diocese of Taungoo, Myanmar. This pilgrimage (first in 2016) took students to the mountains near the Thai border and the people of Thandaung Gyi. Here students and staff lived for eight days, immersing themselves in the life of the village and working in schools, kindies etc.

Because of the changing political situation, the school withdrew from its third trip (January 2018) late in September 2017. The value that had been gained by staff and students alike from the OSL program meant seeking out a new place to journey was imperative. In January 2018 our first pilgrimage to Cambodia took place, working with Cambodia Connect, teaching English in a Transform Cambodia Learning Centre, Phnom Penh, to former street children.

In April 2019, Peter Carnley Anglican Community School and John Wollaston Anglican Community School students and staff were invited to join us on our second pilgrimage to Cambodia. This they did, and the partnership was so successful, that future tours will involve all three schools.