Ian Coles

RE co-ordinator

Carr Hill Primary School

Ian has been teaching in North Nottinghamshire for 13 years and has been co-ordinating RE since (almost) the beginning. He has taught across Key Stage 2 but has also delivered RE lessons in Key Stage One and EYFS. Outside of the school environment, he keeps himself busy by reading, watching sport and ferrying his two kids around.

Ian’s school context is a large, quite monocultural, local authority primary school. This context has challenged Ian to find ways to promote diversity through the RE curriculum, exposing children to ideas and people that they might never have come across otherwise.

He has just finished an MA in Religious Education at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham and has written for RE Today and RE:Online. Ian is also a member of the Nottinghamshire SACRE.

You can follow him on X/Twitter ian_coles

What do you love about RE?

RE, when done well, can be transformative. It allows children to shape their understanding of the world and their place in it, by interacting with ideas, morals, values and people that without RE they wouldn’t have the opportunity to.

What do you love about NATRE?

I love the fact that an organisation exists to fight for RE on the big stages, and to support teachers in their classrooms. The community that it has nurtured, and the resources that it has created, are hugely beneficial to RE teachers across the phases.