Primary Ethics News | December 2018

Welcome to our December Supporter News. View the full edition here.

HIGHLIGHTS

Dear Supporter,

Welcome to the final Quarterly Supporters’ Newsletter for 2018.  It’s been a big few months and we’ve some significant news to share.

CHANGE IN ENROLMENT PROCESS IS HERE

We are thrilled to say that at the end of November, the Minister for Education, Rob Stokes, signed off on a new enrolment process that removes the added barriers that parents of children seeking ethics classes have been forced for years to endure.

The steps to enrol a child into ethics have effectively been reduced from three into one.  Read more

WELCOME TO OUR FOUR NEW DIRECTORS

4 new directors 2018

The Primary Ethics Board is delighted to announce the appointment of four new directors who will formally join us at our last meeting of the year next week. Please join us in welcoming:

  • Christina Erskine (Chris): General Manager, Marketing, Sydney Opera House
  • Justine Felton: Director of Social Impact, PwC
  • Amanda Morgan: General Manager Audit, NAB & Primary Ethics teacher
  • Roger Reidy: Principal of an HR consultancy and former volunteer head of the Primary Ethics Classroom Support Team.

Read more

REGIONAL CONFERENCES: REFLECTION, CONNECTION AND LEARNING

Conferences were held in Newcastle in July and Wollongong in September and provided excellent opportunities to share a range of ideas from creating quality learning environments to program development both locally and across the organisation Read more 

SOUTH WEST SYDNEY RESEARCH PROJECT

Primary Ethics South West schools project

Primary Ethics is already an option at 13 schools in south west Sydney.  In the first research project of its kind for us, currently under way, we will explore ways to assist planning for the future growth of Primary Ethics in more of the 116 schools in this diverse and rapidly growing region. Read more

PLUS

Thank you for a great year of supporting ethics education for tomorrow’s decision makers,

The Primary Ethics team.

Primary Ethics receives no government funding and relies on donors to deliver ethics education to children in NSW schools, if you are able to make a donation we would be very grateful. Thank you.

New Role: eLearning developer (contract)

Develop two online courses to support volunteers in the delivery of ethics education to children.

About Primary Ethics

We are an independent not-for-profit organisation delivering an engaging, age-appropriate, interconnected philosophical ethics curriculum to children in Kindergarten to Year 6. We provide this free of charge via a network of trained and accredited volunteer teachers. Ethics classes have been enthusiastically adopted in over 500 schools in NSW and we take pride in our reputation as an effective and well-regarded education provider within the public school system.

Based in Potts Point, we currently have a staff of 9 (7.5FTE) managing approaching 2500 volunteer teachers, coordinators and regional managers across NSW.

Role Description

Design and develop two short online CPD courses for our volunteer ethics coordinators, using content provided by our subject matter experts.

Courses are to be developed using Articulate Storyline software, which will be available on a PC in our office in Potts Point. Continue reading →

PrimaryEthics@Home for Parents and Carers | October 2018

Welcome to term 4, and to PrimaryEthics@Home! This October edition covers a selection of topics taught in ethics classes in terms 3 and 4.

Visit the parents and carers hub for more about the program.

Kindergarten

Intentions and knowledge: what might a whale know?

This topic begins with a humorous Norwegian folk tale that builds on previous discussions about the difference between doing something ‘on purpose’, and doing something ‘by accident’. Intention and knowledge form the basis of our discussion about the story of Kio’s Grandfather, who, when at sea, was saved by a whale. Did the whale, Kio wonders, really know what he was doing? …read more

Making things up, being cross and hurting someone

One reason we use meerkats rather than (human) children to explore motives and behaviour is to avoid any awkward situation that can arise if children recognise the described behaviour as fitting that of one or more members of the class. Another reason is that meerkats have complex social structures and communication, and in thinking about ethical issues, it is important that children understand the ways in which they are similar to and different from others – not just to other humans, but to animals as well…read more

 

Continue reading →

Two new P/T roles to grow & sustain ethics education program

Primary Ethics is currently recruiting for two new part-time paid job opportunities within Primary Ethics to support our mission to support children to develop skills in ethical reasoning, critical thinking and respectful discussion. Applications for both roles close at 5:00pm on Friday, August 31, 2018.

Fundraising Manager (Part Time)

Quote Hallie, 8

Primary Ethics seeks to appoint a fundraising manager to drive growth in several areas to support operations and drive towards financial sustainability.

An experienced and visionary manager is needed for this key operational role, which is integral to our volunteer engagement and community awareness effort.

View the position description: Fundraising Manager

Community Development Manager (Part Time/Contract)

Primary Ethics is about to begin a project to develop approaches to increase awareness of our program in the greater south-west Sydney metropolitan zone. Overall Primary Ethics has a low presence in public primary schools in the region when compared to other areas of Greater Sydney. We seek a contract community development program manager to lead the project.

View the position description: Community Development Manager

Meet some Primary Ethics volunteers

Newcastle volunteers help shape the future of ethics education

How do we help children make wise decisions in their lives today, while equipping them to be responsible leaders for tomorrow? That was one of the questions posed at the Primary Ethics conference held at the University of Newcastle on Saturday, where 60 volunteers met to workshop strategies for making ethics education available to more students in local primary schools.

Another focus of the day was to support volunteers’ professional development in their roles as facilitators and organisers of ethics classes.

Volunteers came from right across Greater Newcastle, the Central Coast, Taree and as far afield as Coffs Harbour. Some are parents, grandparents or carers of primary school aged children. Others are community-minded volunteers who have a love of learning and wish to make a big impact with an hour or two they have available to volunteer each week. Continue reading →

Boost for Classroom Support

We’re delighted that Coral Sturgess has accepted the role of Classroom Support manager.

Coral, who has been a Classroom Support Team (CST) member for over 2 years, is also one of our teacher trainers, and has a wealth of experience as a high school teacher and executive, a teacher trainer for the Department of Education, and a university lecturer. Coral also teaches Primary Ethics at Woodport PS.

CoralSturgess 2018

Coral will be leading our effort to build the CST to support our ever-growing number of volunteer teachers.

Coral takes the reins from Roger Reidy, who has led the team for 6 years in an entirely voluntary capacity. For some time now Roger has been concerned that he was not able to devote the time needed to run the Classroom Support Team the way it now needs to be run. Looking for a solution to ensure the team had the support required, Roger met with me to propose that this could become a part-time employee role.

Our Board of Directors supported the proposal and approved appointing a two-day per week employee to head up the CST.  This will be a great benefit to Primary Ethics and to members of the Classroom Support Team.  Roger will remain a member of the team and looks forward to playing a part as a team member going forward, and in supporting Coral where needed.

We particularly want to thank Roger for his efforts in establishing and leading the CST, and for his commitment to continue to support our work.

We’re confident all our volunteers will welcome Coral’s efforts to give our teachers the support they deserve.

Evan Hannah CEO

& the Primary Ethics team

Smiling child with missing tooth

Ethics classes at school: Guest post

by Sandra Henri, ethics teacher

For those of you not familiar with Ethics Classes at your local public school, let me rave about them for minute. Ethics is offered as one of the scripture options, yet don’t let this fool you into thinking its a religious vs non-religious thing.

Ethics is actually about teaching critical thinking skills, in a thought provoking, non-judgement way. Each week, moral stories are discussed, and students are encouraged to consider ‘why’ they hold this opinion, and to see the story from various angles. We have a strict rule that there are to be no put-downs, and differences of opinion will be respected. This gives students an opportunity to speak out against the crowd, and think more deeply about why they might choose to act in a particular way. It teaches children to make decisions based on their own inner moral code, rather than blindly following social norms. We rarely reach a conclusion in these classes, the aim is to cultivate the thinking process.

Some examples of topics include;

  • How do we display friendship?
  • Do we stereotype without realising it?
  • Would you share with your friends vs people you don’t know?
  • Should animals be kept in captivity?
  • What is inner and outer beauty, which do you value more?
  • How can we be a conscious consumer?

Read more about ethics classes here.

I believe critical thinking is an invaluable life skill, that I wish was part of the regular curriculum! It is super rewarding hearing their wisdom expressed with so much conviction (and cuteness), and it feels like you are helping grow little activists. If you have time, I can highly recommend becoming a volunteer ethics teacher, or at the very least, jump on this free resource and get your kids involved.

Ethics classes at school first appeared on Sandra’s blog Less Stuff More Meaning.

New ethics classes in the Hunter

Students at Morpeth and Hinton Public Schools are attending ethics classes for the first time due to the efforts of parents and community members and the support of the school.

The Primary Ethics program has been running at other Maitland area schools such as Dungog and Tenambit since 2015.

Designed for primary school aged children, the classes give children a chance to develop skills in critical thinking and in making well-reasoned decisions. Volunteers are trained as ethics teachers and they facilitate the discussion using the Primary Ethics curriculum. The next two day training workshop will be held in Newcastle on April 7 and 8.

“My kids really enjoyed their first ethics class at Hinton,” said Holly Moore, mother of Violet, 9 and Banjo, 11 who were among those to take the classes for the first time this term.
Continue reading →

Professor Dame Marie Bashir a guest of honour at Primary Ethics class

Professor Dame Marie Bashir is indefatigable in her grassroots support of Australian communities and last Wednesday, March 7, her attention was on ethics classes in public schools.

Despite the loss of her husband Sir Nicholas Shehadie in recent weeks, Professor Bashir continues to dedicate an incredible amount of energy and time to supporting communities build on essential areas as education, health and international relations.

Professor Bashir joined former NSW Premier Nick Greiner and his partner Carolyn Fletcher to participate in an ethics class at Marie Bashir Public School. Continue reading →

Primary Ethics volunteers recognised at State Reception

Tuesday 27 February 2018

Almost 100 of Primary Ethics’ longest serving volunteers were recognised for their service to community at Government House Sydney earlier this month.

On Thursday, February 8 His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d), Governor of New South Wales and Mrs Linda Hurley hosted the reception for volunteers, some of whom travelled from across the state to attend.

In his address, the Governor extended his thanks to those invited for donating their time to teaching ethics to the children of NSW.

Continue reading →