Giles Freathy

Academic Director of Education

School Direct Programme Lead Senior Lecturer

Department of Education

01752 636700

gfreathy@marjon.ac.uk

Role Summary

I provide strategic and operational leadership across the Department of Education, ensuring alignment with Marjon 2030 and its priorities for student success, research, knowledge exchange, and social purpose. My role covers collaboration on curriculum planning, quality enhancement, staff development, external partnerships, and the effective running of academic programmes.

My background spans school-based, SCITT and HEI leadership, including designing and leading Postgraduate Teacher Apprenticeships and PGCE programmes.

I have led a range of Initial Teacher Training programmes, including:

Secondary PGCE Programme Lead
PGTA Lead (Marjon Teacher Education Partnership; The Learning Institute)
Cross-phase PGCE Lead (The Learning Institute)
ITT Programme Director overseeing School Direct, SCITT, PGTA and Assessment-Only routes

Qualifications

MSc Educational Research Methods, University of Exeter
PGCE Primary, University of Plymouth
BA (Hons) Arts Management, University of Leeds
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

Teaching

My teaching spans Primary and Secondary ITT, PGCE and postgraduate modules. Areas of expertise include Religious Education & critical, dialogic and enquiry-based pedagogy.

I have taught across multiple ITT providers, delivered extensive mentor training, and contributed to school-based professional development in areas such as independent learning behaviours, higher-order questioning, and effective deployment of teaching assistants.

Research

My research focuses on dialogic, critical and enquiry-based approaches to education, particularly within Religious Education. I am co-creator of The RE-searchers Approach, a methodology-oriented model now used nationally and internationally to induct pupils into disciplinary and methodological thinking through four fictional “RE-searcher” characters.

The approach has been adopted in England, Scandinavia and wider Europe; it has shaped discourse around disciplinary knowledge and influenced Ofsted’s framing of “ways of knowing” in RE. My work sits at the intersection of curriculum design, communities of enquiry, hermeneutics, metacognition and teacher education.

Publications

Latest publication

Freathy, G. (2024). Realising quality religion(s) and worldview(s) education with the RE-searchers approach. In S. Elton-Chalcraft (Ed.), Teaching religious and worldviews education creatively (pp. 175–190). Routledge.

Selected works
Larkin, S., Freathy, R., Doney J. & Freathy, G. (2020). Metacognition, Thinking and Religious Education.Routledge.
Freathy, G. (2018). The making of the RE-searchers approach. BERA Blog.
Freathy, R., Doney, J., Walshe, K., Teece, G. & Freathy, G. (2017). Pedagogical Bricoleurs and Bricolage Researchers. British Journal of Educational Studies, 65(4), 425–443.
Freathy, G. (2016). The RE-searchers Approach: A Quick Start Guide.
Freathy, G. (2016). ‘Religious Education and the concept of “love”.’ In Dialogic Education (Routledge).
Numerous curriculum resources, peer-reviewed journal articles, commissioned guidance, and contributions to RE curriculum development.

Expert Membership of professional bodies

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member, Religion, Spirituality and Education Research Network
Former Executive Committee Member, NATRE
Contributor to multiple SACRE and RE Council networks

Roles on external bodies

Member, CONNECT Multi-Academy Trust
Former Chair & trustee, CONNECT Multi-Academy Trust
Honorary Associate, University of Exeter Graduate School of Education
Professional Consultant to Cornwall SACRE
Member of Cornwall Agreed Syllabus Conference

Other Interests

I am committed to widening participation, tackling educational inequality and supporting schools to develop rigorous, research-informed pedagogies. I collaborate with national and international partners on curriculum innovation, enquiry-based learning and Religious Education.