A MOTHER who took Education Queensland to task over Bibles being handed out at a school assembly has influenced a review of the state's religious instruction policy.

Birgette Linding said she was mortified when her daughter came home earlier this year and recounted how Gideons Bibles had been handed out to students at the end of a Year 8 assembly at Urangan State High School.

"In Hervey Bay we don't have non-religious private schools so we sent our child to a state school to avoid religion and within the first four weeks of being there she is handed a Bible," Mrs Linding said.

She offered to organise the Koran and Buddhist texts for students because she believed state schools did not favour one religious organisation over another, but was declined.

Education Queensland director-general Julie Grantham recently has written to Mrs Linding stating she had been advised the school did not inform parents of the Gideons visit, despite a department policy stating parents should be informed of any activity with religious content.

Ms Grantham said while Education Queensland policy maybe should have indicated caution to principals about religious organisation visits "in the particular case of The Gideons International, state school principals may also have been misled by the longstanding tradition of such visits to state schools over many years".

She also acknowledged the department's "acceptance of this longstanding practice amounted to tacit approval reasonably relied upon by the principal".

The Religious Instruction in School Hours policy is being reviewed, with Ms Grantham requesting the need to provide clearer guidance to principals about religious organisation visits now be considered.

Ms Grantham wrote that she saw no merit in pursuing alleged technical breaches regarding the visit.

Mrs Linding said every parent should be aware of Education Queensland's policy around religious instruction and every principal should be made to follow it.

Originally published as School mum bashes Bible, gets review