RExChange 2026

1:00pm · Welcome, Keynote and Q&A

Navigating Controversy: Teaching in Unsettled Times

Speakers: Amy Ark, Fay Lowe, Shammi Rahman

2:00pm · Break

2:15pm · Seminar 1

Delegates will choose one option on the day

Justine Ball: Informed Encounters: Using Research to Improve Visitor Engagement in RE

Catriona Card: Using Persona Dolls for a disciplinary approach to Early Years RE

Paul Hopkins: Why Religion and Worldviews Education needs to be engaged and active on G-AI

Jas Jacques-Butterworth: Can the gender gap be closed in religious studies?

Ann Pittaway: Supporting Primary RE Teachers to Foster Pupil Spiritual Oracy

Kuljinder Shokar and Kelly Keatley: Dipping our toes into research: Two examples of first-time research projects.

Alice Thomas: Developing ‘Dialogue, Diversity and Worldviews’ within the Nottingham Local Agreed Syllabus.

3:00pm · Break

3:15pm · Seminar 2

Delegates will choose one option on the day

Geneva Blackmer: Who gets to speak? Representation, Coloniality and Disruptive Praxis in Interfaith Engagement.

Trevor Cooling: Theology, Faith and Research: Autobiographical Reflections on Personal Knowledge

Angela Goodman: Understanding Critical Religious Education (CRE) in practice

Lucien Likandja: Engaging with Global Learning in RE

Paul Marvin: Spaces of Discomfort and their importance in the RE Classroom

Adam Robertson and Josh Cass: Contested Issues and Trade-Offs: Extending Freedom of Religion or Belief frameworks from Primary to Secondary Classrooms

Leo Taylor and Elizabeth Phillips: From outreach to partnership: Embedding Interfaith Learning in Schools.

4:00pm · Break

4:15pm · Seminar 3

Delegates will choose one option on the day

Sarah Dennis: Teaching sacred stories through a multidisciplinary approach to Upper Key Stage 2

Rob Freathy: Assessment and (Digital) Badges: New Terrain for ‘Ways of Knowing’?

Stephen Pett and Jon Lanman: Exploring Atheism: exploring data on non-religion in the classroom

Mark Plater and Louisa Newton: Worldviews Clarification Classroom Project

Joseph Ramsden, Roman Williams and Amina Atiq: Lessons from Interfaith Photovoice in Liverpool

Steph Whyte: What even is Religious and Moral Education? Sharing Practice in RME (RMPS)

Samuel Yates: What would a robust non-religious curriculum feel like?

5:00pm · Break

5:15pm · Two parallel In Conversation sessions

Religion and worldviews education – why it matters beyond the classroom

A: Geo-Political Perspectives
B: Social and Community Perspectives

6:00pm · Break

7:00pm · Keynote

How storytelling can lead to transformative conversations about race and religion
Speakers: Robert Beckford, Alexandra Brown, Janet Orchard

9:00am · Welcome and recap on Friday sessions

9:15am · Seminar 4

Delegates will choose one option on the day

Elaine Arundell: Designing Inclusive RE Experiences through Creative Song

Claire Clinton, Lucy Still, Taranum Afshan and Marie Hardie: Learning from pupils in RE

Shazia Gleadall: How do religious studies teachers talk about Israel and Palestine?

Phoebe Harvey: The Role of RE in Challenging Misogyny in UK Secondary Schools

Tom Haward and Alexis Stones: Art and History for RE: Seeing, Knowing, Feeling

Krishan Parker: Teaching Dharmic Traditions: Lived Experience in the RE Classroom

Jane Yates: Untranslatability in Religious Education: From classroom curiosity to PhD research

10:00am · Break

10:15am · Keynote Session with Q&A

Curriculum Research Conversations: Four nations perspectives

Richard Kueh with Katie Freeman (England)
James Nelson with TBC (NI)
Stephen Scholes with Terri Barry (Scotland)
Jennifer Harding-Richards with Jennie Downes (Wales)

11:15am · Break

11:30am · Three Parallel In Conversation Sessions

Building inclusive, reflective and relational approaches to religion and worldviews education

A: Inclusion, including SEND and Alternative Provision
B: Personal Knowledge and Reflexivity
C: Interfaith and Belief Relations

12:30pm · Plenary and end of conference reflections

Ian Coles (NATRE, Primary)

Tim Hutchings (TRS-UK)

Kelly Keatley (NATRE, Secondary)

Ruth Marx (AREIAC)

Fiona Moss (Culham St Gabriel’s)

Ed Pawson (RE Council)

Stephen Scholes (AULRE, Scotland)

Paul Smalley (NASACRE)

Sean Whittle (AULRE)

Kathryn Wright (Culham St Gabriel’s)

1:00pm · Conference ends