Staff were introduced to the new Religion syllabus that Catholic Education has adopted from the Brisbane Diocese. Staff will be required to write programs that are integrated with other curriculum areas and that develop a deeper understanding of concepts through an inquiry approach.

Staff investigated the content descriptions and achievement standards for the year levels they teach and gained a deeper understanding of the teaching content. The curriculum content comes under four main banners: Sacred Texts, Beliefs, Church and Christian Life . We also viewed the resources that were available to help teach the content knowledge and discussed the new program format.

The session also highlighted the ‘Moran Model’ which Catholic schools in our diocese follow. This model adapted from Gabrielle Moran discusses the distinct and complementary nature of the two dimensions of Religious Education on our schools.

These are:

The classroom teaching and learning of Religion (content) as well as

The Religious Life and Catholic Christian Ethos of the school community.

Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn seek to be places where learners:

• are invited to discover the presence of God in their lives;

• encounter positive relationships and experience the message of the Gospels; and

• make sense of their world by connecting to the scriptures, traditions and worship found in Catholic communities.

We look forward to working collaboratively to write the new Religious Education programs to fit the needs and context of our own school. This will involve further professional reading and learning by the staff to understand and implement the new content knowledge of the syllabus. It is wonderful to have staff that are willing to challenged and enthusiastic to engage in new learning.

Welcome Ryan and Annabelle to St Joseph's.