Information for Principals

Following the recent amendment of the NSW Education Act 1990, students who don’t attend Special Religious Education (SRE) / Scripture classes in NSW public schools now have a legal right to receive philosophical ethics classes as an option to supervised ‘private study.’

Philosophical ethics provides a secular framework for examining ethical questions through argument and justification, to develop a child’s understanding of ethical issues, his/her skills in ethical decision making and the dispositions to act ethically.

St James Ethics Centre (SJEC) founded Primary Ethics, which is responsible for all aspects of course delivery, including providing trained volunteers and resources. Primary Ethics currently runs Ethics classes for Years 5-6 in around 150 schools across the state and will progressively roll out the program across all primary school years and in as many schools as it can find suitable volunteers, where parents choose this option for their children.

 

The process for establishing Philosophical Ethics classes

In practice, the provision of ethics classes in any NSW State Primary School will depend upon there being:

  1. Children who have opted out of SRE (which will always be a discrete, first option for parents) and who wish to participate in classes in philosophical ethics,
  2. Available trained volunteers to teach classes during SRE time; and
  3. Available curriculum material.

 

In order to determine if there is demand in your school for a Year 5&6 Philosophical Ethics class for children who don’t attend SRE, schools might like to send a letter to all parents of Years 5&6 children (and Year 4 if you are looking at starting in the next school year) asking them to express their interest in enrolling children into these classes. Click here for sample letter.

Just like SRE, our program relies on volunteers to teach and coordinate the classes. If a principal is approached by parents to get Ethics classes started at his/her school, please refer them to our website to consider volunteering to become an Ethics Coordinator, or give them a copy of this letter.

Enrollments in Ethics classes are actually determined by responses to a note sent out to all families (currently of Years 5 and 6 children) at a school, once an Ethics Teacher has been trained and is ready to teach. Click here for sample letter.

People interested in volunteering to become the Ethics Coordinator at your school, or to Teach Ethics classes at you school will also apply online. 

The Primary Ethics Coordinator recruits and selects ethics teachers for your school and liaises with you about classroom locations, numbers of children and any other issues you might have with ethics classes in the school.

 

We understand the DET also sent this advice to principals:

'Where there is a trained volunteer teacher and sufficient students to form a class, ethics must be offered at the same time as Special Religious Education. (Note that, as for Special Religious Education, teachers on duty in a school may not teach an ethics class.) ' 

'More detailed advice will be distributed early next year in the form of revised policy and procedures.'

 

Once the DEC has finalised its policy on Special Education in Ethics we will post a link to it on this page. In the interim, the DEC has posted this Information for Principals on its website.

If you have any questions about this from the DEC side, you should contact Ms Kirsty Smith, Learning and Development Officer – Ethics and SRE by telephone (02) 9715-8231 or by email at Kirsty.Smith37@tafensw.edu.au

 

Please refer all parents and potential volunteers with any questions to our website.

We look forward to working with you to ensure a smooth rollout of philosophical ethics classes over the next few years and beyond!

 

The Primary Ethics Team