Queensland state schools embrace a multitude of cultural, religious and non-religious beliefs. Under the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006, schools are to provide Religious Instruction (RI) if approached by a faith group seeking to provide RI and students of that faith attend the school.
RI informs students about the beliefs and values of a particular religion. It is delivered by volunteers of a faith group using instructional materials approved by that faith group. RI is required to be consistent with legislation and Department of Education policies and procedures.
All RI instructors must hold a blue card and participate in compulsory Student Protection and Code of Conduct training. RI instructors are only entitled to deliver the RI program outlined below. A school staff member will be present during the delivery of RI.
Participation in RI is not compulsory. Any student (except Prep students) may participate in RI if a parent has provided written instructions to the school.
Students are allocated to RI based on information provided by parents on the completed enrolment form unless other written instructions have been provided to the school.
Note: This consent remains in effect unless the parent informs the school otherwise in writing.
Christian RI: Local Christian Churches (St Maru's Parish Baptist Church and Harvest Point INC) come together to offer Christian RI on a cooperative and non-denominational basis.
Authorised Programs : Beginning with God, Connect and or Big Questions by Christian Education Publications (CEP).
Aims and goals: To inform students about the basic beliefs of the Christian faith from a non-denominational perspective. To help children explore meaning, purpose and spiritual development in life.
Lesson Structure Connect is a three-year program presented across three levels of schooling – infants, lower primary and upper primary. The lessons are Bible based. Each lesson introduces concepts, themes, and major characters from the Old and New Testaments. Lessons also cover key Christian events such as Easter and Christmas. Students may engage with such concepts as respect, thankfulness, forgiveness and hope through story telling, music, drama, reading, writing, puzzle-solving and drawing. Program resources are written by professional educators and are age appropriate and are held once a week for a period of approximately 25mins.
For further information including module and/or lesson descriptors visit: https://cepconnect.com.au/curriculum
Other Instruction
Students who are not participating in RI will be provided with other instruction in a separate supervised location. Other instruction must relate to part of a subject area already covered in class and may include:
- personal research and/or assignments
- revision of class work such as creative writing or literacy and/or numeracy activities which could include online programs currently accessed by the students of that school (i.e mathletics and reading eggs.
- independent reading appropriate to the student
https://christianri.org.au/info-for-schools/
Christian RI - Information for families.pdf