Ihave one daughter in Primary and one in High School. We are total non believers and they are too having obviously picked up on our vibes over the years Anyway, a letter came out from the primary in the first term last year advising that if we wanted our child to miss the RE lesson (mine would have done maths instead) we could. My daughter requested that she do the maths option - don't ask. So I gave permission. Apparently a fair few others did as well and the school then decided that this was not right or healthy and so made RE compulsory again. My daughter has come home and told us a fair bit about religion which is good, although she is still a non believer.

My eldest is in grade 9 now and has SOSE which is sort of social/economics/ life stuff and she is being taught about different religions this term.

So the short answer is - Australia is, generally speaking, a Christian country and yes they do teach christian values etc whilst also explaining other religions of course.

You hear the usual media stuff about not mentioning Christmas etc - similar to the UK but I think that is media wind up.

Thanks for the replies - they help a lot.

I had read some info that advised that state schools don't cover RE so you have set my mind at rest. As my OH said we're no "god bother'ers" but it's just interesting to know the bible stories instead of thinking that Disney invented Moses....