Posts Tagged ‘religious education’

The Religious Education classroom in a secular world?

Thursday, February 15th, 2024
Religious Education

The environment in which Religious Education is taught in Catholic schools in Australia today has changed dramatically over the last sixty years. Culturally, this reflects the significant changes in society globally and the impact of religious affiliation locally. Gone is much of the tribalism, homogeneity and compliance that so identified the Catholic faithful pre-Vatican II Read more

Catholic faith included in new RE curriculum

Monday, December 5th, 2022

Catholic schools will still be able to teach the Catholic faith, a Director of Religious Education at a prominent Catholic Secondary school told CathNews. Her comments followed an article published on the weekend suggesting religious education was being replaced by religious studies. The article went on to suggest religious studies would primarily focus on the Read more

RE exam for Christchurch Catholic school for girls goes wrong

Thursday, July 14th, 2022
Christchurch Catholic School for girls

The last day of term at Christchurch Catholic school for girls, Villa Maria College, should have been one of relief for its pupils. But for those sitting a level one NCEA external religious education (RE) assessment, this wasn’t the case. For them, the last day of last term turned into a worry. It was on Read more

Parents outraged at school’s pro-Israel Folau assignment

Thursday, August 29th, 2019

Parental objection has seen a Catholic secondary school cancel a pro-Israel Folau assignment. The assignment was signed off by “the Religious Education Year 9 Team” at St Patrick’s Marist College in New South Wales. “Your mission is to present to your Local Member of Federal Parliament a letter expressing deep concern for the future of Read more

Revisiting the 20-year-old secondary school RE curriculum

Thursday, November 15th, 2018
re curriculum

The New Zealand National Centre for Religious Studies (NCRS) is providing secondary religious education teachers with a new curriculum guide. The Secondary RE Bridging Document (SREBD) Poipoia te kakano kia puawai – Nurture the seed and it will blossom – is intended to provide some common ground while a formal longer process of preparing a new year 1 – 13 RE Read more

Proposed changes to Religious Education syllabus

Thursday, July 19th, 2018

Proposed changes to the Religious Education (RE) syllabus have been met with outrage in the UK. The Catholic Education Service (CES) and the Bishop with special responsibility for RE say they are “not happy” with a report calling for urgent reform of religion in schools in England and Wales. The say it is “a direct Read more

School restarts religious lessons after complaints

Friday, March 21st, 2014

A group of Auckland primary school parents who took concerns about religious lessons to the Human Rights Commission are outraged Christian teaching will restart next term. At the start of the year, Roy Warren, whose 5-year-old son attends St Heliers School, originally complained to principal Craig McCarthny about the 30-minute sessions running during school time, Read more

Divided beliefs over Bible in the classroom

Friday, August 9th, 2013

One in three state primary and intermediate schools teaches religious instruction, according to a survey which has triggered debate over what children are being taught. Here, the chief of the Churches Education Commission, Simon Greening, and the survey’s author, David Hines, present their views: For Why should New Zealand primary schools continue to offer a Read more

No stranglehold on God

Friday, April 5th, 2013

I soooooooo don’t get it. John Main says, “Language may not be able to lead us into the ultimate communion but it is the atmosphere in which we first draw breath of consciousness.” I have spent more than fifty years acquiring language – a spiritual language, that is, not my native tongue – and suddenly Read more

Geering says not enough religion in schools

Friday, July 13th, 2012

Sir Lloyd Geering believes there are good reasons for teaching religion in schools. He thinks parents’ confusion about the word “religion”,  can make them more likely to remove their children from religion classes. “I think ‘religion’ is probably a word that is confusing the whole situation. What we really should be talking about is culture. Read more