The sixth in a series of articles exploring religious education in government schools.

Department support for general religious education

General religious education is an important part of the primary school curriculum and is explicit in the Kindergarten to Year 6 Human Society and Its Environment Syllabus. Within the strand of Cultures the prescribed subject matter includes:

Stage 1
– similarities and differences between ways in which families express their culture
- belief systems of groups and families in their community and other communities
Stage 2
- places of religious and spiritual significance in the local community
- traditional and religious stories about significant people and entities of major world religions
- major customs and celebrations of religious and other community groups
Stage 3
- traditions, beliefs systems and practices of Australians
- comparison of above with at least one other nation in Asia-Pacific region.

However, general religious education is not limited to these explicit references. What people believe and how that belief affects their lives is relevant to many areas of this syllabus. On this understanding the resource, Belief in action, was developed by the Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate and distributed to all government primary schools in 2002.

The resource contains 38 double page spreads on people, events and ideas that illustrate how belief has been acted on. The articles are both historical and contemporary and each article is linked to a syllabus outcome and subject matter. The document has other resources and Internet sites for further research by students.

John Gore