The SRE Coordinator Community

This is the new SRE teacher and helper accreditation management system for SRE Coordinators in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. To find out more download the SRE Coordinator Community User Guide and access the resource page.

The guide

The Guide to Primary and Secondary SRE provides a comprehensive summary of everything you need to know about SRE including legislation, policies, requirements for teachers, and Youthworks’ support for SRE coordinators.

Accreditation Form for new SRE teachers and helpers

New SRE teachers and helpers need to complete an SRE Accreditation Form that is to be kept confidentially by the local church. This form records the information required in the SRE Coordinator Community so you will have everything you need to create their records. A new form for each teacher/helper should be completed within about 6 months of a new rector being appointed to your church.

This form was last updated 22 February 2024.

Communicating with families for SRE enrolments

WhySRE Brochures?

Why SRE? brochures are ideal for sharing at schools, in your church or in the community to promote enrolments. The brochure gives five reasons for parents/guardians to consider enrolling their child in Christian SRE and answers some frequently asked questions. You can view the brochure and order from us at youthworks.net/why-sre-brochure. Brochures are provided for the cost of delivery. Please work out with your schools as to when these would be most helpful to have for orientation packs and open nights andand be sure to order your brochures early.

Enrolment instructions for families

These translated enrolment instructions were designed to be easy to print locally and then inserted inside WhySRE? brochures for parent information packs at your local school. With implementation of the OES (online enrolment System) these may be less required, but can always be used as an extra option or method for parents to enrol in SRE if needed. The SRE Office will be seeking to update enrolment instructions once procedures are finalised with the OES.

• Arabic/English enrolment instructions

• Chinese simplified/English enrolment instructions

• Chinese traditional/English enrolment instructions

• Indonesion/English enrolment instructions

• Korean/English enrolment instructions

• Vietnamese/English enrolment instructions

Coordinator Church Partnership Form

The SRE Coordinator Church Partnership Letter provides confirmation from another rector/provider that you need to have them be part of your team. This would be completed and signed by the church that manages the accreditation requirements of the teacher or helper and then given to you to store at your church.

In the past you may have recorded their information in your SRE data file. However, because of the nature of the new SRE Coordinator Community you will no longer be able to see or record the accreditation details of a teacher from another Sydney Anglican Parish or accredited by another Approved provider.

When do you need to use this form?

If you have SRE teachers or helpers who are:

1. accredited by another church or approved provider, AND

2. part of a Combined Christian SRE arrangement in a school that you are coordinating, AND

3. the other church is not co-signing the School Authorisation Letter for the school concerned.

Please use this filled in sample of the letter to assist you in completing it.

Continuation letter

You will need to send a Continuation Letter (Primary), a Continuation Letter (Secondary) or a Change in Arrangement Letter to the school in Term 4 to confirm arrangements for the following year.

Criminal Conviction Declaration

All new SRE teachers and helpers in 2024 and on must complete the Criminal Conviction Declaration form BEFORE beginning to teach SRE.

All existing SRE teachers and helpers are to complete the Criminal Conviction Declaration form by 30 June 2024, or they will not be able to continue teaching in public schools in NSW.

SRE coordinators need to report the date of signing this new form in your Salesforce SRE Coordinator Community. SRE Coordinators can download these slides that outline the process to complete this task for your teachers. An updated video and instruction sheet will be available soon on the SRE Coordinator Community Resources webpage.

Explaining the accreditation process

If a principal requests information about the accreditation process for Anglican SRE teachers, you can give them this SRE Accreditation Confirmation Letter.

Handling complaints

The SRE Complaints Handling Policy outlines the current procedures when a complaint is made against SRE organised by the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. This includes complaints made against Anglican Authorised SRE teachers or helpers, the Anglican authorised curriculum or SRE coordination.

You should use the SRE Complaints Report Template to document the complaint process and its resolution.

Kindy Orientation video

Coordinators are often given an opportunity to speak at School Orientation Sessions to explain what Christian SRE is and how parents can sign their children up. This is a great opportunity to engage new parents to consider Christian SRE.

There are a number of resources to assist in promoting SRE at the orientation events. This short promotional video can be shown to new parents at orientation events to explain what Christian SRE is, and why it is worth considering from a parent perspective. This guide will help plan your involvement in the orientation events.

Online Enrolment System and SRE

All schools in NSW have begun to implement an Online Enrolment System (OES) which will manage all aspects of the students schooling, including their SRE participation. It is each school’s responsibility to ensure that the OES is implemented correctly for their parents and community. However, we can bless our local schools by making sure that they have all the correct information as they prepare the OES for their specific needs.

Please send this OES template letter to the school with information for them to include in their OES. You need to add the specific details that match your SRE arrangement (in the same way you adjust the school authorisation letter). You can use this annotated pdf of the template letter to guide you through the process. This letter needs to be emailed or given to both the SRE Coordinator and the Office staff to ensure the information reaches the right hands.

Recruiting SRE volunteers

We have four short videos available that encourage Christians of all ages to consider SRE teaching in local public schools. The videos can be downloaded from Youthworks’ Vimeo account but you will need to contact the SRE office to get access to these videos. Request acces to this resource now by emailing sreoffice@youthworks.net.

School authorisation letter

The School Authorisation Letter provides the school with all the information they require of your SRE teachers and helpers as well as your approved provider details. You need to send an updated School Authorisation Letter every year and whenever you have a new teacher or helper in the school. This letter replaced the previous SRE Teacher Register and cross-authorisation forms in 2020.

You will need to send the appropriate School Authorisation Letter to the school in Term 1 from the two options below. Please note that for all High School SRE arrangements the Combined Christian SRE version of the letter should be used.

a) Anglican Christian SRE

If you coordinate SRE as the only approved provider use this School Authorisation Letter for Anglican Christian SRE. The comments on this pre-filled sample letter may assist you.

b) Combined Christian SRE

If you coordinate SRE with other approved providers use this School Authorisation Letter for Combined Christian SRE. The comments on these sample letters for combined arrangements may assist you:

• pre-filled sample letter for primary school combined arrangements

• pre-filled sample letter for high school combined arrangements

Sensitivity framework

The SRE Sensitivity Framework sets out guidelines for your SRE teachers engaging with sensitive issues in their classes.

The framework has been prepared for the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in consultation with SRE teachers, school counsellors, psychologists and public school leaders.

All Anglican SRE teachers are expected to comply with the framework.

In addition, other SRE providers are requested to conform with the framework when using the authorised curriculum and teaching resources of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.

SRE Incident Report Template

The SRE Incident Report Template is provided for teachers to record any sensitive issues that may arise in an SRE class.

Suggested text for school websites

The Department of Education requires schools to provide parents and carers with general information about SRE, Special Education in Ethics (SEE) and alternative meaningful activities. This includes a list of the approved SRE and SEE providers working in their school and the curriculum being taught.

It is the role of the SRE coordinator to provide the required information about SRE arrangements to schools for use on their school websites (under religion and ethics) and on their SRE/SEE Participation letter.

Below are a variety of text that you can send to your school(s).  The Anglican Diocese of Sydney uses 2 titles for their SRE arrangements: Anglican Christian SRE and Combined Christian SRE.