Recent educational reform in England occasioned new interactions between the state, universities, faith communities and schools. In 2016, a suite of new public examinations testing the academic ability of English students matriculating at 16 and 18 years of age was introduced. In Religious Education, these state-driven changes deliberately involved religious stakeholders, universities and the 'faith school' sector. The curricula generated by this fourfold interaction have received a mixed reception. Themselves part of the agency for change, the authors outline the context of the reform and their investigation into its impact upon the strategies of school leaders and heads of department.