Tips for SRE teachers

The Explore curriculum started being developed in the early 1990s after churches started coming together in Western Sydney to teach Combined Christian SRE. It has been expanded, revised and reviewed many times.

There are 78 lessons in this curriculum. Core units are provided for years 7 to 10 after which there are various supplementary units for teachers to tailor lessons to their students’ needs and interests. Another strength of this curriculum is that it does not assume any prior Biblical knowledge or literacy.

SRE teachers who want to use this curriculum will need to have permission from their Approved Provider to use Explore, and then apply for access to the curriculum by emailing the following information to info@exploresre.au :

1.  Your name

2.  The name of your Approved Provider

3. A list of which school/s you teach at and will be using the curriculum at

4. The email address you want to use to access the curriculum (preferably a Gmail address)

5.  Your phone number

Before using this curriculum, SRE teachers need to:

• let your Approved Provider know you are using this curriculum so they can inform your school/s,

• view the Explore Scope and Sequence of the curriculum to gain an understanding of how the lessons work together and flow across the years.

• read the Explore Using Bibles in SRE classes Policy. Wherever possible, teachers are encouraged and urged to use class sets of Bibles with the students in your Christian SRE classes. If you are unable to obtain a class set of Bibles, PowerPoints have been provided to display most of the Bible verses and passages used in this curriculum.

• read the Explore Audio Visual Policy so that we can all comply with copyright and safeguard our students.

• read and understand the policy of your authorised provider and the Explore policy regarding ‘sensitive issues’.

As you use this curriculum, SRE teachers are advised to:

• Prepare in units rather than individual lessons. We highly recommend you download and review all lesson resources as a unit so that you get a sense of the whole unit and how the lessons work together and avoid adding content into a lesson that may be included in the next.

• Download and review all lesson resources afresh each time you begin a new unit. This is to ensure you are teaching from the most current lessons that include any corrections or improvements. Once you have downloaded a PowerPoint you should be able to add/change/modify it to suit your own needs, like adding your name to the first screen of the opening lesson.

• Contact us if any lesson plans, media clips, PowerPoints or any other files are missing in the online folders. All users have only been granted “View” access which only allows downloading and not deleting, but mistakes and glitches do happen.

• If you have lessons that go for longer that 40 minutes, we highly recommend purchasing exercise books for the students to use as reflection journals. Suggested reflection questions are provided at the end of the lessons plans and PowerPoints, and these will help students think about what they have learnt and how they may choose to apply it to their lives. Student reflections will also help teachers assess whether or not students are understanding lesson content and growing in their faith. Examples of student reflection writing can be found here. 

• Remember that the curriculum and lesson plans are a tool to help you help students grow in their faith. As you would have learnt in your SRE training modules, it is important to remain within the scope of the curriculum and lesson plans, but you don't have to follow it word-for-word. Your own anecdotes, testimonies and explanations will add a distinct flavour and personal touch to your lessons. While it is important that we listen carefully to our students and respond appropriately to their questions, please remember to not stray too far from the curriculum or to head off on tangents (especially ones that lead to discussions on sensitive issues). 

• Seek permission from your Approved Provider to use any resources (video clips, worksheets, colouring sheets, books etc), not included with this curriculum. See the Explore Audio Visual Policy and the policies of your Approved Provider for more information about using additional resources or content.

• Provide feedback to us. Again, mistakes do happen so if you find spelling, grammatical or any other kind of mistake, please let us know so it can be corrected. Also, if you have any suggestions (Bible verses, illustrations, media clips etc) that may help improve a lesson, please email us. The curriculum is regularly reviewed and your suggestion may help us improve it!

Our prayer is that this curriculum, and the lessons within it, will greatly assist as you help young people grow in Christian faith. It is important to remember that in addition to the lesson material, the students will learn much about Christianity from the way you interact with them and care for them – you are a living letter (2 Corinthians 3 v 2) and Christ’s ambassador (2 Corinthians 5 v 20).

With prayer from the Explore SRE team.

Feedback from Christian SRE teachers:

"My team at *********** and *********** high schools have been incredibly encouraged with the level of engagement we've seen in our students since switching over to Explore this year. We've had a term and a half to assess students' response, engagement levels, understanding of the content and classroom delivery as well. Just want to say well done. The content has been a Godsend for our student demographic. We are seeing great breakthroughs in engagement, interests, curiosity and questions. Thank you for sowing into this generation. What you and your team have put together has brought greater effectiveness to our ministry." May 2024

"When we did lesson 7G Heaven a few boys approached me about have a relationship with Jesus . They understood that the relationship not religion was the key."  September 2024

"Explore curriculum works really well... for students who have no previous understanding of Christianity it really helps them understand the basics of Christianity and for students who come from Christian families it helps them deepen their faith and gives them opportunities to grow in their faith by sharing their faith in a safe environment." August 2024