Listen here: podcast.christian-teachers.org.uk or on your usual podcast player

Teaching RE might sound like a natural fit for Christians—but the reality is far more complex. Today, Religious Education isn’t just about explaining biblical beliefs or comparing world faiths. It’s a subject shaped by competing ideas about its purpose, evolving national frameworks, and political debates over who decides what should be taught, and whether non-religious worldviews should carry statutory weight.

In this episode, Lizzie is joined by Cristo, ACT Director and Subject Leader in RE with a sector-leading Multi-Academy Trust, and Savvas, an experienced RE teacher and ACT member with over 15 years in the classroom, including six as Head of Department. Together, they unpack the shifting landscape of RE, explore its challenges and opportunities, and consider what faithful teaching looks like in today’s schools.

Reading list for podcast

Some books that have been recommended by our podcast guests:

• Tom Holland’s, Dominion: The Shaping of the Western Mind (2019)
• Glen Scrivener’s The Air We Breathe (2022).
• Justin Brierley’s The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God (2023), and the podcast to go with it.
• John Dickson’s Bullies and Saints (2021).
• Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, Priests of History (2024)
• Haidt and Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind (2019), and a series of Afterword’s written online
• Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. (2024)
• Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism (2020)  
• Karen Swallow Prior’s On Reading Well (2018)
• Krish Kandiah’s Faitheism (2018).
• Alan Jacob’s How To Think (2017)
• Philip Barnes, Education, Religion and Diversity. (2014)
• Philip Barnes, Religion and Worldviews. (2022)
• Trevor Cooling’s article, Knowledge in a Religion and Worldviews approach to English schools.
• Andrew Wright, Religious Education and Critical Realism (2015)
• Andrew Wright and others, Critical Religious Education in Practice (2019)
• Bannister and Matthews, Have You Ever Wondered (2024)
• Andy Bannister, The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist, Revised edition (2025).

Here is the link to the Gillian Georgiou framework that Savvas was concerned about.

Attached is the proposed framework from REN and ISRSA.