Our ethics education program supports students to develop skills in critical thinking, ethical reasoning and collaborative inquiry.

Ethics teachers – who are fully trained volunteers – deliver lessons from our world-class curriculum (see a full list of topics below) that encourage students to both think for themselves and think with others through discussion. Our curriculum is not about imposing a particular moral code. Students are not told what to think or what the right thing to do is in any situation. We support them to think about and articulate their own views while considering their classmates’ diverse range of views.

Our curriculum also encourages students to engage with key elements of the general capabilities outlined by ACARA (the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), including:
• Ethical understanding (eg. exploring ethical concepts, examining values, rights, responsibilities and ethical norms)
• Critical and creative thinking (eg. inquiring, evaluating actions and outcomes, thinking about thinking)
• Personal and social capability (eg. personal awareness, empathy, community awareness, collaboration).

Our guidelines for high school different from the discussion rules used in the primary ethics classroom.

Our Discussion Guidelines focus on creating a safe and collaborative space. They focus on how students behave during the discussion. 

Our Discussion Moves complement the Guidelines by providing specific actions students can take to advance the discussion intellectually. They focus on how students contribute to the content of the conversation and push their own thinking – and that of others – further. 

Sign up for our @Home bulletin for parents of ethics students

Once a term, we’ll send you our Primary Ethics @Home email bulletin to give you news about the topics being discussed in your child’s ethics lessons.

    Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8) topics

    Years 7 and 8 (Stage4)

    In 2025, students in Years 7 and 8 will discuss and think for themselves about the following topics:

    You’re not the boss of me
    How much control should children and teenagers have over their own lives? What right do parents, adults and governments have to limit teenagers’ freedoms? Why do we have age limits in Australia? And is it okay to stop people from doing things because they might get hurt?

    Life under COVID-19
    Is it wrong to hoard essential items during a pandemic? What causes people to start hoarding? Is it okay for the government to restrict everyone’s freedoms for the good of the country or to protect vulnerable citizens?

    Happiness
    What does it mean to be happy? Is being happy all that matters in life? If you had the choice between living life as normal or living in a virtual reality where you could always be happy, what would you choose? Is maximising global happiness the most important goal for charities – and is it okay to achieve this by changing what makes people happy?

    Welcome to our robot overlords
    Is it risky to create super-intelligent artificial intelligence? If so, should governments stop people and companies from experimenting with artificial intelligence? If we create super-intelligent artificial intelligence, would it be wrong to make them do menial tasks or switch them off?

    Can 50 million Elvis fans be wrong?
    Can someone be wrong about whether a particular food tastes good or bad? Are disagreements about art – such as what the best movie of all time is – objective or subjective? When we find out that someone disagrees with us, should that make us less confident in our position?

    Yuck!
    Are there some things that everyone finds disgusting? Is finding something disgusting evidence that it is morally wrong?

    Thinking hot, thinking cold
    How do emotions influence behaviour? Is it possible to be completely emotionless? Do emotions get in the way of making good decisions – or can they help us make good decisions?

    The cost of a human life
    Why do governments put a monetary value on human life? How do you determine what a life is worth? Is there anything wrong with putting a value on human life? Is it okay to value some lives more than others?

     

    In 2024, students in Years 7 and 8 discussed the following topics:

    Role models
    What makes someone a good role model? Is it necessary for someone to be a good person to be a good role model? Is it fair to have higher expectations of someone just because others consider them a role model? Can having a role model, even if it’s someone you’ve never met, help you navigate life’s moral challenges?

    Who wants to live forever?
    Would you choose to live forever if you could? How would society change if people could live forever? If resources became scarce, would it be okay for governments to impose limits on having children? Is it important that older generations make way for younger generations?

    Friendships
    What is the value of friendship? Is it better to have a few close friends than lots of casual friends? Do we have a responsibility to stay someone’s friend? Is peer pressure always bad? What about when we encourage someone to do a good thing?

    From moon trash to migrant horses
    What does it mean to be a custodian of the land – and is it compatible with owning land? Is littering always wrong – what about leaving rubbish on the moon? Should we always try and remove introduced species? Should we kill wild horses? What about honeybees?

    What do I owe my people? And other questions about community and culture
    Why do we feel proud when people from our country win medals at the Olympics? What’s wrong with treason? Do we each have a responsibility to preserve our culture – or is it unfair to ask that of people? Should museums have to return parts of their collections taken from other cultures? Is it wrong for non-Indigenous artists to copy Indigenous art styles? Is it wrong for white people to make hip hop music?

    Why won’t you listen to me?
    Is it unfair to not listen to or believe what children and teenagers have to say simply because of their age? Are some groups of people routinely not listened to or not believed? If so, what’s wrong with this? And who, if anyone, is to blame in cases of  misunderstanding?

    Giving and accepting apologies
    Can you genuinely apologise if you don’t understand what you’ve done wrong? What makes something a good apology? Do you have to accept a good apology? Can individuals apologise on behalf of a group? Is it ever important for a group (like a class of students) to collectively apologise for the actions of one of its members?

    Lizard people and fake news
    How important is it to think carefully about what we believe? Why do so many people believe in conspiracy theories? What, if anything, is wrong with believing in conspiracy theories? Why might politicians spread fake news? Does fake news undermine democracy? Do media organisations and other groups have a responsibility to combat fake news?

    Being yourself
    What does it mean to ‘be yourself’? Is it possible to be different people in different contexts and is this a bad thing? How important is self-expression? What influence can being labelled have on a person?

    Well, why can’t kids vote?
    Should the voting age be lowered to include children and teenagers? If so, how low should the age limit be? Why is it that an immature 18-year-old can vote, but a mature and knowledgeable 16-year-old can’t? How are decisions made in everyday groups contexts – for example, in friend groups and families? Should children have a say in all family decisions?