Little steps for big gains: building SRE in your local high school
We have a fantastic opportunity to build SRE in our schools in 2022!
Sure, over the past two years COVID has certainly had an impact on SRE in our local schools. There have been some setbacks and for some it’s hard not to focus on the fact that we have lost momentum because we haven’t had the same access to our students.
But looking at this another way — we now have a unique opportunity provided by our ever-sovereign God. An opportunity to recalibrate, reset and rebuild SRE afresh in 2022 with a renewed vigour!
I’m a big believer in the concept that little steps result in big gains over time— as they say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. And as a marathon is completed through a series of small steps, one after the other, so rebuilding SRE in our schools this year is not going to happen all at once! It’s going to take little, intentional steps, one at a time. And under God, as we approach 2023, we will be able to look back and see growth in the right direction.
So what are the steps to building SRE in our schools? Here are a few that you might consider taking.
1) Identify the stakeholders and develop your relationship with them
Ministers, youth leaders, parents of SRE students and other church members—though they may not ever attend your SRE lessons -- are all people with a vested interest in SRE in your school. As SRE teachers, we are able to encourage and build their investment into our SRE program by intentionally pursuing genuine relational connections with them.
There are numerous ways to invest in these relationships, but the most effective way is to be in the same space, at the same time, having genuine conversations with them. These relational connections will build their investment in you and the ministry, and the more invested they are, the more support you will have to continue building SRE!
Can you write a list of the local youth ministry workers and giving them a call, or arrange to have coffee to chat and pray for SRE?
Can you ask to come to their church services to give an SRE update and thank them for their support?
2) Develop a prayer-support network
If we believe that God truly is the one who is sovereign over all things, including our SRE classes, then one of the most worthwhile uses of our time is in prayer. Devoting a small amount of time to facilitate the prayer of the saints for SRE will not only increase their investment in the ministry, it’s one of the most active ways we can demonstrate our trust in God to do the work and build the ministry.
Can you spend some time writing a small prayer newsletter to send to supporters?
Can you send your local church 5 prayer points each term to add to their prayer list?
3) Improve the quality of your lessons
If our SRE classes are of a high quality— if they are enjoyable, engaging, stimulating, relevant, applicable, and help students to progress in their understanding in a way that they can see is valuable— then SRE is going to be more appealing to students and their families, and they are going to be more optimistic about continuing in SRE.
Most SRE teachers I know spend a good amount of time preparing and reviewing their lessons each week. But every single one of them, no matter how experienced they are, would also freely say that there is ALWAYS room for improvement.
Can you pursue some development training as an SRE teacher?
Can you devote 15-20 minutes after each day of SRE to stop and critically reflect on how your classes went and how you can improve them next time?
4) Work towards expanding your reach into grades that don’t currently have SRE
Every student in every public school, from kindergarten to year 12, has a right to receive up to an hour of Special Religion Education each week at school. But the reality is that only a tiny number of high schools actually have weekly / fortnightly classes with students from year 7 to 12. There are many ways to expand our reach into other grades, depending on the capacity of the SRE teachers available. If you are unsure how to proceed with this, a great place to start is to have a conversation with your regional high school SRE advisor.
Can you talk with your supporting board and school coordinator about working to expand into other years?
Can you pursue running termly SRE seminars for the students you don’t currently see weekly?
Can you bring other SRE teachers into the school with you to expand your capacity to teach more students (e.g., they teach year 9 &10 while you teach years 7&8)?
5) Identify someone you can train to teach with you
One reason I often hear about not being able to expand the SRE ministry in a school is a lack of willing, trained people. The truth is that every ministry initiative requires ongoing recruitment and training if it’s going to grow, or even survive long term. This is certainly true in SRE.
You won’t achieve it overnight, but it’s worth spending time and intentional effort to identify potential candidates, convince them of the need, train them, and set them off on their own SRE teaching journey. But it is vital that we recruit new teachers to carry the baton alongside and after us.
Is there anyone in your church you can ask to think about being a helper in your SRE classes?
Is there someone you can begin praying for, that God will convict them of the value of becoming an SRE teacher, and invite to the next SRE conference?
6) Actively pursue participation
Unfortunately, not all high schools invest much effort in pursuing the return of the SRE/SEE participation letter from students. Many misunderstand the fact that SRE enrolment is not simply an ‘opt-in’ system where only those who return a signed note participate in SRE, but rather that the Department of Education’s policy is that all students must return a SRE/SEE participation letter indicating what their SRE option is, and that unreturned notes must be pursued.
As the SRE teacher, you can be helpful in this process by ensuring they understand the enrolment procedure or helping to pursue unreturned notes.
Can you encourage your school to follow the SRE enrolment policy more accurately?
Can you connect with the SRE teachers / classes in feeder schools to help smooth the process of SRE enrolment from year 6 to year 7?
7) Work at bridging the gap between church and school
It is part of the Department of Education’s Wellbeing policy that “Students are connected with their cultural, religious or spiritual backgrounds”, which means that SRE teachers are supported in seeking to encourage and facilitate SRE students to be connected with their local faith community.[1] This can be achieved by verbally promoting local churches and their programs / activities to SRE students after each lesson. If you want to hand out material to students that is not a part of the approved curriculum, such as youth group programs and invitations, this will need to be approved by the principal.
Can you find out what programs / activities the local churches have available for your students to be involved in and promote them each week in class?
Can you identify the church-going students in your SRE classes and encourage their peers to attend youth group with them?
Trying to take all seven of these steps at once will likely result in us tripping over and not making much progress. But over time we will go a long way in building SRE in our schools if we are intentional about taking one step after another.
Which step will you take first?
[1]THE WELLBEING FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOLS