Science religion encounters toolkit 12: science and religion in the classroom

I was a classroom science teacher for 17 years (I now work in Initial Teacher Education). Many years ago, I was welcoming year 9 pupils (13-year-olds) at the door of my classroom for a physics lesson. One pupil stopped in the doorway with a puzzled expression on his face. They all knew I was religious as it was a Catholic school, and I was a Eucharistic Minister at the school Mass. He said, “I thought scientists weren’t allowed to be religious.” I don’t remember what I did and/or said in response, but that incident struck me at the time and now as interesting. How can I make my classroom an inclusive place for people of diverse religious beliefs, the unsure, and those without religious beliefs?