Religious Studies is compulsory at GCSE?!

Think of it as ethics and philosophy more. Its becoming a much more respected subject with higher numbers also choosing it for A level i read somewhere.
Its alot more debating etc and subjects covered can even help them to "have an opinion" and some knowledge on dome gritty subjects, which all helps with some uni and job interviews.

DS is doing RS in his own time as an extra GCSE. He really enjoys it but then again, his strengths appear to lie in essay based, critical thinking types of subjects.

On a slightly different note I am amazed at all these children who are predicted level 9s. Does anybody even know what a level 9 will actually look like

If it's compulsory then he will be unable to take up a different subject as there will be no option groups running at that time for DS's year group.

For those saying IT is a waste of time (especially given he is taking CS) due to the change of curriculum throughout all key stageswe will soon be facing a severe skills shortage as ICT is very different just as the OP has acknowledged, but that is for a different thread

Education is about more than getting a career. Every day in life he will encounter ethical and moral issues. It's fantastic to have an opportunity to form opinions, construct an argument and join in healthy debate. My dc all studied it and dd says it's the one that best prepared her for university as there was no rote learning and it enabled you to think for yourself. Encourage him to look on it as an opportunity.

The short course wasn't that interesting if I recall but the exam was alright (only one I got an A* in, and that's even with writing on the final essay question that "I refuse to answer this question as it goes against my religious beliefs" ) but the full course was apparently much more ethics and philosophy.

A Level RS is where its at though, I did the whole thing in one year after my old RS teacher persuaded me to do it and it was really interesting - there were only 3 of us doing it though.

You can withdraw your child but the school may not be able to accommodate a different subject. Have a chat with the school and see what they suggest.
Our school no longer has a compulsory gcse in RE instead they do a whole week a year of RE which includes visits and experiences and weekly tutorials cover a constant programme of RE associated topics.
I dont see the need for RE at gcse level unless you have a genuine interest in the subject.

My kids went to the school that made GCSE part of the options blocks - neither did it
but they have been brought up listening to Radio4, discussing ethics and the world so I don't think they missed much

DS did Computing instead, DD did Latin.

It isn't even an option at DD's school, never mind compulsory!

It is compulsory for school to teach RS - but there's no reason you can't withdraw your ds.

We withdrew DD from RS at the start of this year (yr 10) - there were various reasons which I won't go into here, but it wasn't a big deal, and school are happy for her and others withdrawn to have independent study periods in the school library.

In the eighties RS at my school was Rural Science.

I specifically chose schools for my children where it wasn't compulsory. For DS it is one of his most hated subjects. (34% in his end of year exam compared with 56-72%in his other subjects. He can stop it at the end of year 9 apart from a tiny bit of ethics as part of phse. He just does not get it.

For dd it is her favourite subject. She is predicted an 8/9 for GCSE & is strongly considering it for A level. It isn't compulsory though.

I strongly believe that it should be optional in the same way as other humanities are so children can choose according to their strengths & interests.

Yes that is true! I do remember my school offering RS as a GCSE option, if you took RS as an option then you didn't have to do the compulsory course.

DS1's High School it was optional, DS2's it's compulsory. DS1 didn't want to take it at GCSE and DS2 doesn't mind, he likes the subject.

My son was at a school where RS was going to be compulsory but he moved schools for year 9 and it became optional. Having said Hurrah I won't have to do RS he then chose to do it as an option because it wasn't just about religion but about ethical questions people face today.

RS is counted as a humanity so if he only wants to do one humanity to allow him to do one of the other options he prefers it would be the history that could give way to allow this.

That's a bit sad OP that he has no interest in the ethics of war, euthanasia, abortion, death penalty, IVF - really? Surely these subjects would interest any bright child?

DS2 is mad about PE and keen on computing but he still has a view about all these matters.

Anyway. I agree, ask the school what it involves. There is still a fair amount of learning about other religions involved. If I were you I would steer him away from ICT which is not very interesting or challenging and towards Comp Sci and music, with history and Spanish he has a great set of options there :)

I think you'll struggle to do a different subject because it would need to be timetabled at the same time as RE and for the same number of lessons. We have 3 hours a fortnight for RE whilst option subjects have 5 so doing another subject isn't possible. If he doesn't do RE he may well end up doing nothing (private study ??) and end up one GCSE down on the rest of his year.

It's usually a short course 1 HR a week in yr 10 with option to set on to complete full GCSE if they want?

As others said you can withdraw him, but that almost certainly won't enable him to do an alternate GCSE.

Our school does short course RE in y10.

Other nearby secondary puts a parental signed off opt-out of RE on the options form. I would say this isn't really in the 'spirit' of compulsory RE the government(s) have decided on.

You really don't need ICT! Most kids can do word processing, PowerPoint, etc without it, as can most adults.

My eldest did GCSE and a level RS he loved the subject. Especially at A level with all the debating. He loves the ethics and a really good argument.
I think he took it at A level as an easy option but it worked out as anything but.
He went to a Catholic college for all his exams and they were no different to going to a non faith based learning centre.

ICT isn't a GCSE anymore it's a BTEC. And a pointless one for a bright kid doing computer science. Ask the school how many hours a week they get on option GCSEs compared to RS - I bet RS is only an hour a week compared to 2 or 3 for all the others. So he has to do some sort of RS, unless you pull him out, but I can guarantee he wouldn't be able to do another GCSE if you did.

FWIW my ds is similarly minded, in a school that does compulsory RE GCSE. I think it's actually been good for him to think about ethics, euthanasia, abortion etc.

and a good number used to do the short course ie half a GCSE (not sure if this still exists actually!) it exists at Dd2s school! She's currently having a dilemma over whether to take half or full RE

Well there's not much point doing ICT AND computer science