Religious education resources are available to teachers, religious education leaders and parents across Australia on the National Catholic Education Commission’s (NCEC) newly-redesigned website.
Through the work of the NCEC’s Faith Formation and Religious Education (FFRE) standing committee, a number of resources to support Catholic school communities in faith formation have been developed to support dioceses and school communities.
“These resources seek to support Catholic school communities to enhance and evaluate their own practices as well as provide links to learning and teaching resources,” FFRE standing committee chair Kate Rayment said.
The resources include the development of the Scripture for teachers resources which have now been integrated into the main website with additional commentaries on Luke’s Gospel and key foundational concepts.
The resource centre provides educators, families and visitors with easily searchable articles, submissions, research and data, case studies as well as national publications including a range of topics including faith formation and religious education, such as:
- A Framework for Student Faith Formation in Catholic Schools which offers a vision and a set of elements for student faith formation together with examples of approaches
- Leading Formation for Mission: A Practical Guide to assist leaders in their consideration, development and evaluation of current practice
- Our Quest for Hope – The Gift of Faith – a discussion paper for families and schools in support of the journey of faith.
The popular Together At One Altar website, which receives 5,000 visitors a day, is still available as a standalone website.
Catholic education’s first national strategic priority is ‘Enliven faith formation and religious education’, through four areas of engagement:
- Researching staff, student and family attitudes about the importance of faith in their lives
- Entering into dialogue with Catholic school communities about the faith formation and religious education of students
- Further exploring a national approach for faith formation and religious education in Catholic schools
- Engaging with and respond to the discernment processes of the Plenary Council about Catholic education.
The NCEC will continue to build on resources which can be searched via the resource centre and accessed via the Faith menu.