Hannah Rich unpacks the key themes in her new report ‘Beyond the Classroom in her latest blog. 13/11/2025
Last week,, the government’s much–awaited Curriculum and Assessment review announced its recommendation that Religious Education (RE) should be embedded within the new national curriculum. This is in recognition of the fact that current provision of RE varies significantly in quality and nature across the country, and a move towards a more equitable state of affairs, which can in turn lead to a more cohesive society. As we argued last year, in our case for why RE matters in the modern world, better religious education, everywhere, is good for everyone, and in an age where the world feels ever more divided, this is vital.
But while this is welcome, constraining our understanding of religious education to what takes place within the classroom, during our school years, or the parameters of the curriculum, is a failure of imagination and a missed opportunity for greater social cohesion.
If we are to build compassionate, cohesive societies, we need to understand religious education as something active, lifelong, evolving and to be taken seriously.
Our new Theos report, Beyond The Classroom, explores these informal forms of religious and worldviews education that occur across the country; the places and spaces where people of all ages, all backgrounds, can learn about other religions, beliefs and worldviews. From sports clubs to supermarkets, museums to mosques, cathedrals to community groups, and from training sessions to our television screens, we find examples of encounter and learning in everyday life and in communities.
Like formal RE, informal RE is patchy across the country. The report highlights case studies of good practice, examples of communities and projects where informal RE is at its richest; interfaith youth clubs, faith communities organising educational walking tours together and medical professionals learning about their patients’ religious beliefs in order to deepen the care provided. However, there are also comparative deserts; geographical areas with fewer spaces of informal RE, but also whole sectors of society which are less prepared or resourced for this.
As might perhaps be expected, informal RE appears strongest in areas of greater religious diversity, where there is greater opportunity for organic, unstructured encounters with those of other beliefs, often reinforced by stronger interfaith networks. At the least formal level, this might look like local supermarkets catering to specific religious festivals that are significant to the local population. While a Diwali display or Eid aisle in a shop is driven by commercial rather than by pedagogical considerations, and these are not in themselves sufficient for religious literacy, they are the sorts of informal encounters we argue can contribute to a greater underlying level of mutual understanding.
These also occur more in the same communities where, at their best, other communal spaces are more likely to generate inter–faith encounters informally; the school gate, after–school activities, diverse workplaces and sport clubs, for instance. This raises the question of how to mainstream and encourage informal religious and worldviews education everywhere, not only for those living in more religiously diverse communities. The paradox here is that social cohesion is often prioritised in these communities, for good reason, but with the result that the population of less diverse communities do not develop similar religious understanding or literacy.
At the more structured end of the spectrum, we highlight examples of good practice in workplace training, with professionals such as social workers, palliative care staff, police officers and medics being encouraged to engage in religious literacy development, through formal learning and encounter with local faith communities. In all these cases, there is an acknowledgement that greater religious understanding can improve the care or service provided to people, but again it is more prevalent in areas with more religiously diverse populations.
In the sectors and institutions where we identified a greater reluctance to engage with religious education, this is attributed to a sort of squeamishness rather than deliberate ignorance. There can be a perception that religion is a difficult topic to discuss, whether in workplaces, public settings or ‘non–expert’ contexts. This simply leads to it not being discussed, and the rich potential for education being squandered.
This is not to cast blame or point the fingers at the individuals working in these spaces. Rather, it is a reminder of the need for universal religious literacy developed naturally, not by mandate. A population which understands other religions and beliefs well, is better equipped for these conversations and less scared of (discussing) religion, regardless of personal worldview or affiliation.
In many ways, this is the core argument of much of our work at Theos: that religion matters and that it benefits us all to understand its role in our society, even and especially if we don’t perceive it to be relevant to our own lives. Familiarity with other religions and worldviews makes it harder to see as ‘other’ those who subscribe to them. Seeing religious education as alive and embodied, beyond textbooks and at every stage of life, is central to the greater unity we need.
As the government moves to formalising RE within the curriculum, it is also important that as a country we also embrace informal RE and recognise its potential to benefit us all.
Read ‘Beyond the Classroom’ here.
Interested in this? Share it on social media. Join our monthly e–newsletter to keep up to date with our latest research and events. And check out our Supporter Programme to find out how you can help our work.
