NSW public schools offer special religious education and special education in ethics, delivered by approved providers wherever available.
During enrolment, you can choose a special religious education option for your child from the school’s available approved providers. You can withdraw your child from special religious education by selecting alternative meaningful activities, or special education in ethics if it’s available.
You can update your preference by writing to the school or through the online form available at participating schools.
Visit the department’s website for more information about religion and ethics.
Special Religious Education and Special Education in Ethics
A feature of the public education system in NSW is the opportunity to provide time in class for education in ethics, faith and morality from a religious or non-religious perspective at the choice of parents.
Special Religious Education
At Padstow Park Public School, the students have the opportunity to attend a half hour Special Religious Education (SRE) class which is an integral part of the curriculum in government schools. Years 3-6 attend their lesson from 10:55-11:25am and K-2 from 12:15-12:45pm. We provide the following scripture classes: Combined Christian (which caters for all Christian churches other than Catholic), Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox and Buddhist.
Each teacher of Special Religious Education is authorised by the approved provider.
The approved provider for Catholic SRE is the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
The Catholic SRE curriculum – Christ our Light and Life is available on the website at http://ccd.sydneycatholic.org/publications/curriculum-resources/
The approved provider for Protestant SRE is the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
The Combined Christian SRE authorised curriculum Godspace can be viewed at https://godspace.org.au/curriculum/#overview
The approved provider for Muslim SRE is the Islamic Council of NSW - https://www.isre.org.au/
The Muslim SRE curriculum is available on the website at
https://www.isre.org.au/scope-k-6/
The approved provider for Buddhist Scripture is the Buddhist Council of NSW.
The Buddhist SRE curriculum is available on the website at http://www.buddhistcouncil.org/sre-program.
The approved provider for Orthodox Scripture is the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.
The Greek Orthodox SRE curriculum Christ in our Midst is available on the website at
https://pantanassamonastery.org/scripture-lessons/
Special Education in Ethics
Primary Ethics is the approved provider of Ethics classes offered at our school.
The Primary Ethics curriculum is available on the website at www.primaryethics.com.au.