“Students learning from home can continue to access Special Religious Education (SRE) and Special Education in Ethics (SEE) classes,” the Education Department story says.

While face-to-face SRE, SEE and Voluntary student activities of a religious nature in schools (VSA) will not be available until schools resume normal operations, the department has responded to requests from school communities to provide lessons from home.

“SRE and SEE approved providers are delivering their authorised curriculum with modifications to allow students to learn from home from the start of Term 2,” the story says.

“The lesson content and the mode of delivery [have] been reviewed and modified for easy access by students. The approved providers recognise that learning at home will not replicate face-to-face learning at school.”

Families can access Scripture (SRE) material from providers such as Christian Education Publications (CEP) whose “Connect” material is widely used. The term two material features characters from the Old Testament such as Gideon and Ruth. New lessons are added every week.

How do we keep God front and centre at a time like this? What is he saying to us right now? How do we deal with the questions that our children have in the midst of this?

CEP’s high school material – Think Faith – is also available and student interactions will be viewed by a moderator to keep things safe.

The Christian SRE site also links to Godspace material “Love out loud”, and the Catholic “Walking with Jesus, pathways of discipleship”.

For high schoolers the Jonah series from Scripture Union is also linked at ChristianSRE.

“With parents under increasing pressure dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns, working from home, home schooling, etc, on top of all the practical day-to-day issues of keeping a household going, we know we have a responsibility to support them in every way we can”  Murray Norman of ChristianSRE explains, urging parents to take advantage of this new online resource.

“How do we keep God front and centre at a time like this? What is he saying to us right now? How do we deal with the questions that our children have in the midst of this?

“One of the things I really love about families having access to great SRE content and materials at home is that as a family they can now explore these questions together.”

“I’m seeing political agendas and long-held disagreements or opinions being pushed to one side.” – Murray Norman

Norman tells Eternity that there was a joint effort with the NSW Education Department, Christian groups, other faiths and the Ethics education teams to get the online learning resources up and running.

“It’s been incredible to see all of the different faith communities coming together at a time like this,” he says. “For me personally, I’m seeing political agendas and long-held disagreements or opinions being pushed to one side as Australians are coming together to support their children.

“I think I’m feeling pretty much like a lot of other dads out there right now, dealing with working from home, learning from home, though sometimes it feels more like ‘surviving at home’. My kids definitely have no shortage of questions to ask and, despite the fact that they have access to a lot of information from a lot of different sources, I know that as their dad I still need to make sure they get the appropriate answers.”