Alexa Stuart attended her first Primary Ethics class at Newcastle’s Lambton Public School 10 years ago. This year, she has returned to those same classrooms as the state’s youngest ethics teacher.

Primary Ethics, which provides an opt-in secular alternative to special religion education at primary and early high school, is now seeking to expand into regional NSW.

Stuart, 18, is teaching the year 2 class while on her gap year.

Alexa Stuart, 18, is volunteering as an ethics teacher at her old primary school.Credit:Peter Stoop

She did non-scripture for the first half of primary school, which was “basically just colouring in”, but when ethics came along in year 3, she “just loved it”.

“I have very vivid memories from primary school of doing ethics and I thought the topics were really interesting,” Stuart said.

“I annoyed my friends afterwards as we went out to lunch because I’d want to keep on talking about the scenarios, and then again when I got home, talking about them with my parents because I just found them really interesting and tricky.”

Alexa Stuart (left) in year 3 with her older sister Jasmine.Credit:

Stuart, a former school captain at Lambton Public, said walking back in through the school gates and recognising some of the teachers felt “really strange, but great”.

She had been worried about whether she would have enough authority as a young woman to manage a class, but said the training had prepared her and all had gone well so far.

Primary Ethics chief executive Evan Hannah said ethics classes had been running in NSW for 11 years, but the organisation continued to struggle with a shortage of volunteers in regional and rural primary schools.

“In a major metropolitan area, it is easier for people to get time off or to go to work later or come home from work to teach,” Hannah said.

Alexa Stuart was worried about whether she would have enough authority with the children as a young woman, but says it has gone well so far.Credit:Peter Stoop

Hannah said people in regional areas lived further away from their work, often had less flexible work, and might have other demands on their time such as managing a property.

The organisation was trying to fix that by recruiting a wider range of volunteers including retirees and people who wanted to job share.

There are 2600 volunteer ethics teachers across 500 schools in NSW, and the split is currently 70 per cent parents and 30 per cent community members.

However, Stuart’s youth was still an exception, with Hannah saying she got the green light because of her experience as a student.

Hannah said Primary Ethics had identified 166 primary schools in rural and regional primary schools across NSW where there were enough prospective students to support an ethics program. That’s based on the school having at least 150 children, with about half of them doing non-scripture.

Ethics classes, which run as a facilitated discussion circle, need a minimum of eight students and a maximum of 22 in a class. The students can be drawn from the same stage (such as stage 3, which includes both years 5 and 6) rather than needing to be in the same year level.

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