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 Application for student enrolment 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.
A description of the RI available is provided below.
Religious Instruction Christian Religious Instruction
Participating faith groups: Local Christian Churches come together to offer Christian RI on a cooperative and non-denominational basis. These local churches may, amongst others, include Anglican, Australian Christian Churches, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Brisbane Chinese Alliance, Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches and Uniting Churches.
The hyperlink below contains an overview of the CEP Connect curriculum.
https://cepconnect.com.au/images/uploads/BWG-Syllabus-all.pdf
When the above hyperlink is open, page numbers appear in the upper right corner of the screen. Scroll down to the page number(s) of interest to you.
Years 1-2: CEP Connect B1 Infants – See pages 17, 20,
Years 3-4: CEP Connect B1 Lower Primary – See pages 18, 22
Years 5-6: CEP Connect B1 Upper Primary – See pages 19, 24
Authorised program:
Year 1: CEP Connect - Beginning with God https://cepconnect.com.au/images/uploads/BWG-Syllabus-all.pdf
Years 2-4: CEP Connect A2 https://cepconnect.com.au/images/uploads/Connect-scope-and-sequence-all.pdf
Year 5-6: CEP Connect - Big Questions https://cepconnect.com.au/images/uploads/Big-Questions-Syllabus.pdf
Aims and goals: The aim of Christian RI is to inform students about the basic beliefs of the Christian faith from a non-denominational perspective.
Lesson structure: Lessons will typically run for 25 minutes per week.
For further information, including module and/or lesson descriptors visit the links above. Parents of students participating in these programs will be advised if a faith group requires funds to cover the expense of materials used in RI.
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:
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, Reading Eggs)
Parents will be advised of any changes to the RI and other instruction programs to ensure they are able to make an informed decision on their child's participation.
(This document is part of a suite of Religious instruction policy statement supporting documents provided by the Department of Education for use in Queensland state schools and available at https://education.qld.gov.au/parents-and-carers/school-information/school-operations/policy-statement )
Christian Religious Instruction (CRI) is expected to commence early in Term 2 of 2023 on a weekly schedule through the end of Term 3.