What We Do
The Newcastle SRE Board is responsible for two separate areas of ministry. They are:
- Scripture in Schools
- Chaplains Program
Scripture In Schools
The Newcastle SRE Board is responsible for the Christian SRE Programmes in 15 local schools. They are:
Newcastle High Islington Public School
Merewether High School Merewether Public School
Hunter School of the Performing Arts Merewether Heights Public School
Carrington Public School Newcastle East Public School
Fern Bay Public School Stockton Public School
Hamilton Public School Tighes Hill Public School
Hamilton South Public School The Junction Public School
Total 5521
The responsibility of the Newcastle SRE Board is to advance and maintain our Churches vision in reaching all our 5521 local school students.
Currently we are reaching 2939 + Merewether High School Seminars and if we had the finances we could reach the other 2582 that currently aren’t receiving SRE each week.
Primary Schools
In our local 12 Primary Schools we have around 55 volunteers. Each primary school also has a contact person who co-ordinates the school’s SRE programme. Merinda Handsaker, our Regional Primary SRE Coordinator, helps to support and develop all areas of Primary SRE in our region.
High Schools:
The Newcastle High programme has been running since 1996 when 8 local churches got together to employ a teacher. Now we have 14 churches and employ two paid SRE teachers, Aaron Williams and Scott Leith, who teach every year 7 and 8 class once a fortnight.
The Merewether High programme has been running since 2007 with seminars for years 7—10. In 2009, we began timetabled classes for year 7 while continuing seminars for years 8—10. This is continuing into 2010. Our two teachers for 2010 are Josh Allen and Ben Broadfoot.
The Hunter School of the Performing Arts has timetabled lessons for year 7. Craig Eade, Matthew Wilesmith & Graham Nattress teach our SRE programme as volunteers. We hope to employ a teacher shortly.
Because of the success of our programme we have older students in Newcastle High who ask why they can’t still receive SRE. This reason is a financial one.
Even to continue till the end of this year we depend on the support from our local church members and Local Christian businesses.
The Newcastle SRE Board is registered as a deductible gift recipient which means that any donations are tax deductible.
Chaplaincy
“The national chaplaincy initiative is a federally funded programme introduced in 2007 which employs chaplains in schools right across Australia. The chaplains are appointed to enhance the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of the school community. The role of the chaplain can vary from school to school and includes such responsibilities as: general pastoral care and counselling for students and staff, values education, special needs mentoring, general community engagement and crisis assistance, amongst other things.
Each chaplain is appointed in a joint collaboration between the school community, school staff and an external body who supervise the funding and chaplaincy contracts. The Newcastle SRE Board operates in this external bodycapacity to provide chaplains in a number of local schools. Each chaplain is employed two days a week in their respective roles: Laura Lindsay at Carrington Public, Michelle Harris at Merewether Public and Margaret Livingstone at Newcastle High School.
The federal government initially committed to funding chaplaincy for three years which will see the current programmes continue through until late 2010 in most schools. They have currently extended this funding for a further 12 months into late 2011. We believe that the chaplaincy initiative is a vital and strategic investment in our school communities and it is our prayer that it will continue to be supported by students, staff, families and governments long into the future.”