Events - Primary Ethics

Northmead – volunteer team of the year

Northmead Public School ethics team were co-winners of the 2024 Kinghorn Volunteers of the Year award – in their school’s centenary year. At a recent school assembly they were presented with their $1000 winning cheque to go to their school library, as well as a hardback copy of Unstoppable Us by Yuval Noah Harari.

Evan Mallika Ramaswamy Veronica Roelink librarian — Evan Hannah, Primary Ethics, Mallika Ramaswamy, Veronica Roelink and the school librarian.

Northmead is a large, diverse school in western Sydney. The team have worked really hard at building a very strong, steady and committed presence to ensure that ethics is now offered across all years, having started with only two classes a decade ago. The reputation and popularity of the program has grown significantly and now almost one third of the school population is engaged in ethics lessons. The program is seen as an important part of school life and the team is well known and respected. With a diverse, committed and community-minded team, they’re not only teaching ethics — they’re building a lasting legacy.

Our volunteers love the conversations and lessons we get to share with the kids and we especially love catching up each term to chat all things ethics and learning from each other's experiences. We all feel that we get as much from the experience of teaching ethics as we give to our students each week.

Former ethics coordinator Tania

Northmead 1 (1) — The 2024 Northmead ethics team, from left: Veronica, Christina, Mallika, Susannah, Myat, coordinator Tania, Elaine. Missing: Abha.

Volunteer Elaine

One of the team, Elaine Lee, told her story:

I have always wanted to volunteer in a program that has an impact for others. Taking a career break, I saw this opportunity  advertised at our school and jumped at the offer after reading up on the Primary Ethics program. My background is in Learning & Development and the program aligned with my values of instilling morale and critical reasoning, even more cause to volunteer with Primary Ethics.

What makes it great is that you don’t have to have facilitator experience! The training program is very well constructed, mine was led by Kelby Mason.

 Knowing that I can make an impact for my child and the children of tomorrow makes it very rewarding and fulfilling. The curriculum is current with today’s scenarios and it’s such a pleasure to work with a cohort of like-minded volunteers who want to make a difference.

I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to participate in this program. I hope this becomes the norm as part of a child's learning in primary and high school. Thank you, Primary Ethics!

Elaine Lee. volunteer at Northmead Public School

More about volunteering with us

Conference 2019: Reflecting on past challenges, planning for the future

As the world grapples with major economic, political and environmental change, our hope for the future lay in the ability of our emerging leaders to make well-reasoned decisions on issues with far-reaching consequences. This was the message Dr Simon Longstaff of the Ethics Centre had for the 160 attendees at Primary Ethics State Conference held on Saturday October 26.

On a personal level, we all benefit from the ability to think critically and to reason. Education in ethics is crucial in helping us, regardless of our age or stage in life, be better equipped to tackle the various challenges we face.

Not-for-profit group Primary Ethics’ second state conference was generously hosted by Western Sydney University in Parramatta. Ethics volunteers from around the state converged to participate in a day of ideas about the work they are engaged in and the path that lay ahead.

Keynote speaker Verity Firth, head of UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion and former Minister for Education, revisited the challenges leading up to achieving legislative change in 2010 that permitted ethics classes to be delivered in NSW public schools alongside special religious education classes. Almost 10 years later, Primary Ethics represents the largest ethics education movement in Australia.

So where to now? Renee Bilston from Farmhouse Montessori spoke about the benefits of ethics classes to her school under the recent partnership with Primary Ethics. Primary Ethics’ Elizabeth Allen spoke of the workplace volunteering project that has seen 14 UNSW staff trained and supported to deliver ethics classes in schools near the university’s Randwick campus, not simply to engage and contribute to local community, but as a mechanism for staff wellbeing and meaning.

Meaning was a theme developed by Mitra Gusheh, Executive Manager, Social Impact at UTS in her presentation of the study by Dr Gianni Zappalà on the outcomes of volunteering in the lives of Primary Ethics volunteers.

Curriculum author Dr Sue Knight and philosopher Kelby Mason discussed the philosophical framework behind the Primary Ethics curriculum, with Classroom Support Manager Coral Sturgess and Trainer Sophie Patterson exploring implementation of the program in the classroom and its underpinning of 21^st century skills.

The value of applied ethics was reflected upon in a lunchtime screening of The Final Quarter and a talk by 13-year-old Belle, who explained how ethics classes had helped her to have conversations with people with differing views on complex topics such as climate change.

In 2019, 45,000 children participated in weekly ethics classes in 500 schools across the state thanks to the contributions by donors and a team of 2800 trained volunteers.