This contribution reports research into young people's attitudes to religion and religious diversity in secondary schools across the UK. The data indicate that students' respect for the religiosity of their peers, or their lack of it, is due less to the influence of classroom RE (multi-faith or otherwise) than to the experience of religion in the neighbourhood and the degree to which being 'religious' is viewed as 'normal' there. The essay contrasts negativity experienced in schools by young people of strong practising religious faith in neighbourhoods where religious practice is not the norm with the greater tolerance and respect accorded to religious young people in schools serving neighbourhoods where religious practice is common and prominent. It considers the implications for religious education of this uneven experience.

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This article uses research carried out in a variety of English schools to suggest a discontinuity in the handling of the Bible between primary and secondary religious education (RE) classes, the former providing a more positive climate for the development of skills of scriptural reading and interpretation than the latter where students (and teachers) often expressed negativity towards books and the Bible in their RE learning. It employs Ricoeur's manifestation and proclamation distinction to argue that engagement with religious scriptures in RE is necessary for students to develop a comprehensive understanding of religion and religious meaning, and it uses his model of the interpretive act of reading to analyse the practice and attitudes revealed by the research. The article argues that while the subjectivities of reader and text currently obstruct Biblical learning in the secondary classes, this is less the case in the primary schools. Here, the greater scope given to narrative, and its power to provoke new understanding, provides a foundation on which secondary RE teachers could usefully build if their students are to come to appreciate and rise to the challenges of close engagement with religious scriptures.