What Is SRE? A Guide for Australian Parents and Teachers

Special Religious Education (SRE) is a government-approved program delivered in NSW public schools by approved providers from faith communities. Under the NSW Education Act 1990, time is set aside each week for accredited volunteers and teachers to provide religious instruction to students whose parents have enrolled them.

In most Australian states, the equivalent program goes by different names — RI (Religious Instruction) in Queensland, Religious Education in Victoria — but the core idea is the same: faith communities have a recognised role in helping students explore questions of meaning, morality, and worldview.

SRE is delivered by approved providers from recognised religious groups. In practice, the majority of SRE in NSW public schools is delivered by Christian providers — including Anglican, Catholic, and inter-denominational organisations like Access Ministries. Each provider trains and accredits its own volunteers and teachers, who are then cleared by their local school.

Lessons typically run for 30 minutes per week in primary schools. Teachers are volunteers from local churches who go through Working With Children Checks and provider training before entering a classroom.

Students whose parents do not enrol them in SRE may be enrolled in Ethics classes — a philosophical discussion-based program for students in Years K–6. Ethics classes are not religious instruction; they focus on critical thinking about moral questions using structured dialogue. Both SRE and Ethics happen during the same allocated time slot.

Understanding this distinction helps parents make an informed enrolment decision and helps teachers manage the logistics of the lesson period.

Research consistently shows that children who have a framework for meaning-making — whether religious or philosophical — navigate difficulty with greater resilience. SRE gives Christian children a place in their school week where the faith discussed at home is affirmed and explored in community with peers. For many families, it is the only faith formation their child receives outside of church.

For classroom teachers, SRE and Ethics periods are also a time for supervised non-contact, which is a small but real support to weekly planning.