I’m a Newtown High School parent and my WhatsApp group won’t stop pinging

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While a tiny number of students at Newtown High are studying Christianity, the rest cannot study anything at all.

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School parents’ WhatsApp groups normally contain reams of messages about excursions, lost uniforms and the end-of-year concert. But at the moment my phone notifications are mainly about one issue: the recently introduced special religious education (SRE) classes at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, where I’m a parent.

As a Canadian who grew up in a public education system in which students learned about world religions, I find the current debate over SRE in NSW schools both upsetting and disappointing. In high school, we studied Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, not so that we would adopt them, but so that we could better understand the people around us. We visited mosques, synagogues, temples and churches with our qualified teachers. We learned about different traditions, rituals and values. Those experiences taught me that, while religions differ in many ways, they also share many important themes: community, compassion, service, and the search for meaning.

However, at Newtown High, due to education departmental policy (which appears stricter than NSW legislation), hundreds of students are prevented from engaging in normal curriculum lessons while about 6 per cent of students attend religion classes organised by Anglican organisation Youthworks. Some of the non-SRE students have reportedly spent this time colouring in under the supervision of qualified teachers rather than being taught the curriculum. The rationale, according to the department, is that delivering curriculum content to non-SRE students would confer an unfair academic advantage over those attending SRE.

I find this difficult to justify. Newtown High is a school that celebrates creativity, diversity, academic excellence and inclusion. Learning time is precious. Many students work incredibly hard to balance demanding academic studies with artistic pursuits.

The policy also…

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