Our Blog - Primary Ethics

All about ethics lessons: webinars

We run regular one-hour webinars for anyone interested to find out more about what happens in ethics lessons or about volunteering with us.

In the webinar, you’ll be able to participate in a demo lesson to see our teaching style in action, hear first-hand from current ethics volunteers, hear about what impact ethics lessons have on children, plus all about our comprehensive free training and what’s involved in volunteering with us.

Click on an image for any session below to register.

Find out more about ethics volunteering

Barry: A highlight of my week

For Seniors Week 2026, we asked some of our over-70 volunteers to tell us about their experience with us. There is no age limit to ethics volunteering – we have volunteers in their late 80s. At 73, Barry Richardson is in his eighth year of volunteering with Primary Ethics.

Barry’s experience

Eight years ago, I was transitioning to retirement, moving from a five-day working week to three days. I saw an advert for ethics teachers in our local community Gazette, teaching at our local primary school, Artarmon, which my now very grown-up children had attended many years ago. What a great way to give something back to our wonderful community.

I thoroughly enjoyed the training and meeting an eclectic group of people of varying ages, backgrounds, experience and interests. The training introduced me to some great new skillsets.

My first ethics lessons were exciting, sometimes challenging, but always fun. It was like going back to school myself, with all that that brings.

I have been lucky enough to teach all ages and stages, at one time taking three classes a day. I’ve met some wonderful other volunteer teachers from our local area, as well as the school staff. It is both enjoyable and rewarding to be involved with young, active minds engaged in critical thinking and to learn about respectful discussion.

Without doubt, my classes have been a highlight of my week.

Barry

I am now retired and have moved to the inner west, where I have transitioned to teaching ethics at the local high school. More challenges, but always fun and certainly rewarding.

I also relief teach at the local primary school which three of my grandchildren attend or have attended. Having moved to a new area after 40 years in Artarmon, ethics volunteering has been a great way to meet many people in the community through the local school.

You’re never too old to be an ethics teacher!

Find out more about ethics

Paul: In touch with the rising generation

For Seniors Week 2026, we asked some of our over-70 volunteers to tell us about their experience with us. There is no age limit to ethics volunteering. At 88, Paul Sowter is in his eleventh year of volunteering with Primary Ethics.

Paul’s experience

When I retired from casual teaching at age 75, my son alerted me to the existence of Primary Ethics. I enquired, did the training and suddenly I was a teacher of ethics at Normanhurst West Public School, on Sydney’s far north shore.

As a former schoolteacher, I was impressed by the approach: everyone in a circle, kids do the talking but only if they want to. What a safe haven for the shy! The feedback in that most valuable end-of-year lesson revealed the benefits students draw from the experience, particularly in personal growth.

And I found this: whichever stage I taught over the next 10 years in various schools. Primary Ethics keeps me in touch with the rising generation – their innocence and awareness of so many things about the world is a delight to observe. The lesson material, especially for stage 3, can be challenging – you can see it in their faces. And they respond, slowly, feeling their way, listening intently to what their peers are saying, building on the previous contributions.

I have also seen the courses themselves develop over the years. And yes, old as I now am, I too have developed. I only wish I could have applied what I’ve learnt from teaching ethics in my former career.

As my hearing worsens with advancing age, soft voices can be a challenge. I am now employing an app on my iphone to improve my reception through airpods. The kids like being the monitor who delivers the iphone to the chosen speaker!

Over the years I have developed my IT skills with frequent assistance from the wonderful helpdesk. I delight in the material from Kindergarten to stage 3, often taking me off into further study

Whenever I meet someone for the first time I unashamedly steer the conversation towards Primary Ethics. No one has ever disapproved. All express an interest.

At the time of writing, March 2026, the topic my stage 1 class is exploring is pride. The photo of me above shows my pride in my endeavours.

The photo to the right is not my class. It is the instinctive formation of a troop of gorillas when they realise their leader is dead.

Why not join Paul as an ethics volunteer in your local school?

William: Ethics volunteering is meaningful, valuable and satisfying

For Seniors Week 2026, we asked some of our over-70 volunteers to tell us about their experience with us. There is no age limit to ethics volunteering – our oldest volunteer is currently 88. At 81, William Rodwell is in his ninth year of volunteering with Primary Ethics.

William’s experience

As an 81-year-old, I think it very worthwhile to let my fellow seniors into a secret. For those of you with an inquiring mind and an interest in our grandchildren’s and hence our society’s future, there is something for you that’s even better than the events of the NSW Seniors Festival. And you can enjoy it every week! That’s being a volunteer ethics teacher in a NSW school. I am now in my ninth year of volunteering and it is undoubtedly my most rewarding weekly activity.

My proximate motivation for volunteering to teach ethics was to ensure that my grandsons had access to the Primary Ethics programme at their primary school. To me it also felt important to find a way to contribute to society after I was no longer doing that through work. The ethics programme provided a meaningful and valuable way to do so. My grandsons are now well beyond primary school but teaching ethics is so satisfying that I continue to teach at their former school and now also at other schools.

We volunteer ethics teachers believe that the Primary Ethics curriculum provides a unique opportunity for school students. It develops their moral sensibilities, including the capacity to empathise with others, consider other peoples’ points of view, be aware of the relevance of intentions and circumstances to ethical decisions, and so on. The emphasis on the students providing reasoned arguments for their ethical standpoints also develops their capacity for critical thinking. To me critical thinking is as valuable as the ethics component, as it is especially important in this age of false information – it provides students with the tools to distinguish specious arguments from valid ones. The structure of our lessons as collaborative enquiry also develops the students’ ability to work together to reach a collective understanding of the ethical issues under discussion. Importantly this does not mean they have to agree with each other, but they should understand other students’ points of view, which is so important in our contemporary polarised society.

The most consistent advice I see given to seniors to maximise health and wellbeing is to maintain their social engagement and mental stimulation.

Being a volunteer ethics teacher provides both. The kids’ openness to ideas, joie de vie and capacity to think seriously about quite demanding concepts is a joy to behold. I think this interaction with children and seeing the value of the ethics program for students is very rewarding. In addition, I find the syllabus we teach stimulating and thought-provoking for me, which adds to my enjoyment of the role and has contributed to my own philosophical development.

Moreover, the social engagement does not end with the students. A group of people prepared to contribute their time to teaching ethics – ie the other volunteers at my schools – constitutes a lovely, supportive and interesting community. As an old person it’s a treat to be involved in a group covering an age range from parents of Kindy children to long-retired persons like me. Who wants to be confined to old peoples’ groups where the conversation inevitably turns to ailments, infirmities and funerals? Not me!

Why not join William as a volunteer in your local school?

When I suggest to retired people that they would enjoy becoming a Primary Ethics teacher they often say something like “I could never manage a group of primary school kids; it’s too daunting”. I was also anxious about this at first. I had been volunteering in several roles at my grandsons’ school, so I knew I enjoyed interacting with the pupils, but that’s not the same thing as controlling a class. However, the students are not generally little demons itching to cause trouble – most are delightful. In addition, in most primary schools a regular teacher sits in the class to help with any behaviour management issues. They don’t contribute to the teaching itself, but their mere presence is enough in most cases to ensure that the class behaves and they are there to help if some students don’t behave.

My only regret about embarking on volunteer ethics teaching is that my personal circumstances prevented me from becoming involved earlier!

William

Helen: Primary Ethics and ‘senior’ me

For Seniors Week 2026, we asked some of our over-70 volunteers to tell us about their experience as ethics volunteers. There is no age limit to ethics volunteering – our oldest volunteer is currently 88. In her later-70s, Helen Kerr-Roubicek is in her eighth year of volunteering with Primary Ethics.

Helen’s experience

When I took that Primary Ethics pamphlet at the Drummoyne Primary School fete, I opened the door to a very stimulating volunteering adventure. That was around eight years ago and I was approaching 70. I had three granddaughters at the school. After I began volunteering, while we only shared limited time in ethics classes together, I enjoyed the fact they now saw me in a broader role in their school context. They have all moved on to high school but I’m still here – loving being the coordinator for Primary Ethics of a brilliant team of nine volunteer teachers.

Over those years I have always found my PE journey stimulating, because I am challenged to think deeply about the philosophy and research behind contemporary issues. These form the background to the curriculum that is set out for we teachers to follow and facilitate in lessons.

When people ask me ‘so what do you tell the kids?’, I delight in explaining that it is not about ‘telling’. It is a community of enquiry approach that encourages students to think together about topics such as fairness, disagreeing respectfully, screen time and understanding diversity. They develop their own ideas and become more confident in expressing those to others and giving reasons for why they think what they think. They develop skills in reflecting and listening to what others think and say. PE is open to all faiths and belief systems. Mutual respect is a very important underpinning value for the classroom discussions.

People also ask ‘what’s involved as a volunteer?’ Then I can’t wait to explain that the setup has many amazing strengths:

It is very economical timewise and the time commitment is predictable – after training, a teacher typically needs to download and read over a lesson a few times and print copies of any pictures or activities in preparation for the average 35-minute lesson each week. There is a quick online feedback process after each lesson.
PE is an organisation that provides professional layers of user-friendly training and support. The technical support for the Internet materials is very effective and makes it easy to be involved with only basic skills (which are bound to improve as well). There is also good classroom support if issues arise and if all else fails there is a helpdesk at the end of the phone to clarify direction. All this is provided free – it is not expensive to become involved.
Undoubtedly the most exciting aspect is the opportunity to have regular contact with young people, exploring day to day issues with them, hearing their ideas and having the opportunity to support their personal growth.

After three to four years, I was offered the opportunity to become the PE team coordinator for the school. I was reluctant at first, lacking confidence. This is a liaison role with the school on all relevant matters including the setting up (online) and management of classes. Actually it has turned out to be a perfect extension of my favourite professional roles – resource linking, mentoring, recruiting, team building and with limited administration. There is also plenty of support for this role. And the best thing – it’s time limited too! Setting up at the beginning of each year is the busiest time.

Helen third from right with other Drummoyne volunteers.

Our team is made up of a balance of retired older people who have a range of rich professional and community experiences, and keen parents of current students who keep us in touch with school news. We manage our team organisation through a Whatsapp group and look forward to catching up at our end of term dinners.

Over the past four years I have been through some tough times personally as I journeyed with my husband in his experience of serious illness until his recent death. The care and support from my team and the school- from offering to take my classes or other tasks, to being available for ‘debrief’ coffees and messages – have made a real difference for me. And the regular classes with bright, lively faces each week ready for another discussion have provided a structure activity in my week that has also been helpful.

The camaraderie with my team and the wider PE community, including my regional manager, has been incredibly rewarding and uplifting. I realise as I look back over the eight years that this community building is at the heart of my PE experience and it is so good to feel that the lessons we provide are assisting students to do that in their own worlds.

Have I just been lucky with my school and team members? Would it be different somewhere else? There is no doubt that I have been fortunate and I know that there are many influences on how PE functions in different schools, including critical issues like when it is timetabled and how supportive the school executive is. But it is my belief now, that the community of enquiry approach as an underpinning of this program is right for this time and resonates with young people, parents, teachers and community members. Why else would we have growing numbers in our classes and more volunteers to teach in such a busy world?

Why not join Helen as an ethics volunteer in your local school?

Diana: Investing in future generations

For Seniors Week 2026, we asked some of our over-70 volunteers to tell us about their experience as ethics volunteers. There is no age limit to ethics volunteering – our oldest volunteer is currently 88. In her mid-70s, Diana Dagg is in her seventh year of volunteering with Primary Ethics.

Diana’s experience

I was drawn to this role because teaching ethics offered the chance to teach my grandchildren. Over the years I’ve taught ethics to two grandchildren at Arncliffe Public School (they’re now at high school) and currently two grandchildren at Marrickville West Public. But I discovered early on that this is much more than simply having an opportunity to spend time with my grandchildren.

Before I list the many benefits, it must be noted that ethics teaching is not just a cushy volunteering job. Without being too dramatic, becoming an ethics teacher is an investment of our time, our expertise and our belief in the importance of contributing to future generations.

To do the job properly, we as volunteers need to commit to preparing well for lessons, taking the time to learn our students’ names and to understand any of their particular needs. We must also be willing to ask for and accept advice from trainers and schoolteachers. There are lots of opportunities for continuous learning within the ethics teaching technique.

We don’t need to have been teachers before becoming ethics teachers. In fact, friends of mine who were schoolteachers before becoming ethics volunteers say they had to ‘unlearn’ the traditional teaching practice of rewarding ‘correct’ answers. This ethics teaching role is about helping our young students develop approaches to thinking for themselves.

Above all, to be authentic, we as volunteer ethics teachers must value and want to understand children.

Spending this teaching time with my grandchildren each week is rich with potential, including:

Hearing their opinions about issues that affect them
Meeting and hearing the opinions of their classmates as a group
Providing an intersection point for conversations with them outside of ethics
Meeting their teachers and understanding the school ‘culture’.

My relationship with my grandchildren has been strengthened by my ethics teaching role because:

we confidentially discuss (and I get to hear) what questions matter to them in our ethics class
their friends like and respect me as an ethics teacher using our humanitarian rules in class – that earns me points as a nanny!

There are many great things about this role apart from the strengthened bond with my grandchildren:

I have the opportunity to meet and work with students with disabilities, to help them learn
I have greater insight into the challenges teachers face each day
I’ve enjoyed some fun lunches and morning teas, sharing war stories with other ethics teachers.
I’m proud to be investing in future generations through rigorous teaching practice and a thoroughly researched ethics curriculum which reflects values similar to my own.

Are there rewards/benefits that I wasn’t expecting?

Hmm, probably it’s the opportunity to understand the needs of students with disabilities and to be mightily impressed by the skilled teachers who work with them. Also, the satisfaction of managing challenging situations well.

Any concerns about dealing with technology (EVIE) or coping with things like hearing impairment?

It’s been fine to use the technology but if there are problems, I know I can turn to the very helpful Primary Ethics staff on the Helpdesk or my ethics coordinator and/or school admin or teaching staff. I already have hearing aids (yikes!) so no probs with hearing in my classes.

Find out more about volunteering with us

@Home for parents bulletin – Term 1 2026

Welcome to @Home bulletin for Term 1 2026, where we let families know what your children, from kindergarten into secondary school, are exploring in their ethics lessons this term.

Subscribe here to receive our @Home email bulletin once a term.

The topics we show below are based on classes which begin at the beginning of the year – this can vary as schools start their ethics programs at different times. If your child tells you they are discussing a topic you don’t see in this bulletin, you can also look at the Curriculum section of our website.

We hope the students talk about ethics with you at home – ask them questions about it!

Kindergarten: Being curious and asking questions: Young children are curious about countless things and a goal of our curriculum is to nurture this curiosity so that they’re motivated and confident enough to think critically for themselves about issues that matter to them. Our first topic of the year encourages kindy students to start thinking about why we ask questions. Students will also consider why it can sometimes be hard to ask questions out loud when we’re worried about looking silly.
Later in the year, students will consider questions about sharing, fairness and doing harm without meaning to.

Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2) Pride: In our first Stage 1 topic of the year students explore some big questions to do with pride. What does it mean to be proud of something? Is it okay to be proud of our accomplishments? What about being proud of the things we’re given, like gifts and rewards – is that okay? And why are we sometimes proud of other people?
Later in the year, students will reflect on the importance of having good reasons and discuss the ethics of laziness.

Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4) Being selfish: In our first Stage 2 topic of the year, students delve into the ethics of being selfish. Is it okay to act selfishly or is it always wrong? If you’ve put lots of effort into something or you’re worried it could get broken, is it okay not to share it? What does it mean if you help someone but for selfish reasons – is that misleading or deceitful?
Later in the year, students will think about how to disagree respectfully and whether it’s okay to keep animals in captivity.

Stage 3 (Years 5 & 6) A fair society: In our first Stage 3 topic of the year, students ponder what it means to have a fair society. Do we have a responsibility to make sure everyone can go to school and receive medical treatment? What are some of the challenges involved in providing such opportunities? And do governments have a responsibility to address inequalities that are the result of good or bad luck?
Later in the year, students will consider whether it’s ever okay to challenge a rule or piece of advice given by an authority.

Stage 4 (Years 7 & 8) Role models: Our first topic of the year invites students to consider the place of role models in our lives. What makes someone a good role model? Must someone to be a good person to be a good role model? Is it fair to have higher expectations of someone just because others consider them a role model? Can having a role model, even if it’s someone you’ve never met, help you navigate life’s moral challenges?
Later in the year, students will discuss whether the voting age should be lowered and some ethical dilemmas around friendships.

Each term brings new ideas and questions, and we hope these topics spark interesting conversations at home as well!

The secret weapon against polarisation – Osher Günsberg

Osher Günsberg, radio and television presenter and now popular podcaster, has joined the ranks of ethics volunteers at his son’s school. Osher says: “When I open my phone, it explodes in a cascade of fear, fury and furphies… leaving me spinning in a tizz of desperation and powerlessness. … I think I have found something that makes that feeling less intense and instead gives me the feeling that I am actually doing something that will make a difference.” Thanks Osher for this lovely reflection, we wish you the best in your year of ethics volunteering ahead.

Find your way to make a difference by volunteering with us

Q+A: Evan and Laura

As the handover period between Primary Ethics leaders Evan Hannah and Laura Ramos comes to a close, we gave them both a Q+A. So it’s farewell to Evan after over eight years in the role and welcome to Laura!

Evan Hannah

When did you start working for PE and what drew you to the job?I first ‘worked’ for Primary Ethics as a volunteer coordinator at my son’s school – Five Dock PS – for several years from 2013. I became CEO in July 2017. My motivation came from seeing how powerful the program was and wanting to do what I could to take it to more students in more schools.

How many locations have you worked in since you started? Five – with three of those being in the same multi-storey office block in Potts Point! We love where we are now (co-located in the city with The Ethics Centre), but my favourite was the wonderful purpose-built space at the Paddington offices of our great supporter Rob Keldoulis and his Vivcourt company. We were there for a happy 12 months before Covid pushed us to our home spaces!

How many staff were there when you started and how many now? We had six people (five full-time and one part-time) when I began. As I hand over to Laura we now have 17 staff (seven full-time and 10 part-time.) We’ve increased our staff to meet the growing demands of recruiting and supporting volunteers – and we’re busier than we’ve ever been.

You’ve done numerous media interviews over those years, which was your favourite? My favourite interview was with ABC Radio 702’s Sarah Macdonald in their Ultimo studios. Sarah was well across what Primary Ethics does, which made the interview relaxed, but what made it a favourite was when one of her regular contributors – film academic Bruce Isaacs – called in to talk about his own experience teaching ethics with us. It was such a positive and fun interview, which created some good listener interest in volunteering.

You will have heard many stories about the impact of ethics lessons. What stands out for you? Perhaps the most moving was when a parent told me his son had talked about how thinking things through as they did in ethics classes helped him deal with the grief of losing a grandparent. It’s both fulfilling and deeply sobering to hear how what we do can give students those tools.

What are you most satisfied with as you leave? I’ve had a bit of time to think about this and there are two examples out of many satisfying outcomes.

First was our successful multi-year campaign to allow parents to choose ethics at the same instant they were told about SRE (scripture) – Department procedures originally forced parents literally to opt out of scripture twice before they could be told ethics was available at their school. It was unfair and frankly unethical! The change meant information and choice is now equitable, opening the way to more student enrolments and more volunteers.

Second is how our volunteers responded during the long Covid lockout from schools, when our hard work to keep people engaged kept them keen and eager to return to schools when they re-opened. Our volunteers stayed with us during that difficult time, when many other not-for-profits had trouble keeping their volunteers on board.

I leave knowing we continue to have an amazing committed staff and a fantastic group of volunteers.

What’s in your future? I’m incapable of sitting still for long, so I’m already thinking about a couple of ways to keep busy. Leading such a great organisation as Primary Ethics has shown me the rich satisfaction you gain when you’re able to see effort at one end of our program turn into great outcomes at the other, so I’m certain I will seek to again be involved in an organisation or social enterprise that benefits the community.

And I’ll keep up with my cricket umpiring!

Laura Ramos

What drew you to this job? Knowing about the amazing work of the organisation and the opportunity to be part of the next chapter. I knew of ethics education from when my daughters were in primary school. My daughters (who are now at university) still have positive memories of ethics lessons.

You’re doing the ethics teacher training now, how are you finding it? I’m loving the training – and can confirm that it is thorough! It’s been really humbling to step into student-mode and realise how little I actually knew about what it takes to be a great teacher. There is so much to consider. Our trainer has been phenomenal; she’s got deep knowledge of teaching practice and is super methodical in pointing out where we’re demonstrating the right

teaching skills, when we need to finesse and when we need to try again. From seeing how training happens, I also have a far greater appreciation of the care that goes into every aspect of our program.

Is there anything surprising about it? I love that our training is set up to build teaching skills for adults who come from very different backgrounds. And yet, we’ll all be able to deliver ethics lessons now – and we’ll have access to our excellent Classroom Support resources to help us improve over time.

You’re originally from Puerto Rico and the US, have you come across anything like Primary Ethics over there? I wish! I’m pretty sure my parents would have loved having this for my sisters and me when we were growing up. I haven’t seen any program offer ethics education to students at the scale that we can, with the breadth and depth of topics and the rigorous approach to curriculum and pedagogy. Our program is pretty unique as far as I’m aware.

What have been the highlights of the job so far?

Being blown away by the rigour and excellence built into our program.
Realising how talented, committed and generally awesome every person in the staff team is.
Developing deep respect for every one of our volunteers, because they make the magic happen in schools.
Seeing our team work on setting up ethics classes for the 2026 year – exciting and a lot of work!

Tell us about your interest in AI. I’m curious and trying out different products with interest. A big part of my career was in tech-focused roles, so I guess I’ve seen many examples where IT solutions don’t meet the expectations of users and also instances where tech can be deployed to make things demonstrably better for people.

When it comes to AI, it’s fascinating to see new services that can help us solve everyday challenges much more quickly – but not always well. Nevertheless, I think there’s real value in learning how to use AI tools and also in staying informed about the potential pitfalls.

What’s the best story about ethics you’ve heard so far? I have a new one every day. Today it was a side conversation where we speculated what Socrates might have done with social media. Who says we can’t have fun with ethics?