Can a school make Religious Studies GCSE compulsory? Can one withdraw?

Well posters have given links to the syllabuses so you know this is what they will actually be taught which should reassure you.

The school that I work with do not offer RE. What a pity?

Regarding academies ...

I have three older teenagers, last one in GCSE year. The only one that did RE until 16 was the one that chose to. PSHE is compulsory. RE definitely is not.

But I had also added that no one will kill you for not believing theories in other subjects, while the world is full of people who will kill you for not believing or for offending their religious theories. Do you disagree? When's the last time someone was killed for not believing a now discredited economic or sociological theory?

And? Are you suggesting teenagers shouldn't learn about that?

I was an RE teacher for a while. At our school we did the GCSE qualification with all students to a half GCSE because it was required to timetable in RE anyway (one hour a week), so they might as well get a qualification and exam practice for it. We also offered it as a full GCSE to students who were willing to put in the extra time and effort - so still one hour a week timetabled but with a few extra after school sessions and homework. Most of them did remarkably well because once you understand the marking scheme it's a breeze.

As others have said you can choose to remove your child from lessons covering RE. That never happened in our school, but I understand they'd have an hour a week in the library for private study.

Lessons were certainly full of debate and most students enjoyed learning about cultures and considering their own morals and ethics. Nothing is taught as fact other than "some Christians believe that... other Christians believe...." I think it has a very valuable place on the timetable.

@ParentOfOne yes the guidance applies to academies too. See page 2.

No, it is not compulsory for any pupil to take GCSE RE. It is expected that schools offer it. My atheist son took RE as he enjoys philosophical debate ( he is now doing politics and law a levels) but quickly tired of it and wished he had taken something useful instead.

Kids bloody LOVE re.

it’s only the parents who moan about it.

Same here, it was compulsory GCSE for eldest and she enjoyed it so much she chose it for A Level despite us being a very non religious family. I believe the Philosophy and Ethics side is very interesting and sparks lots of debates amongst students. Also it's supposed to be one of the easiest GCSEs out there!

@ParentOfOne this is the guidance for RE issued by the DfE: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7adb3ce5274a34770e7953/DCSF-00114-2010.pdf

Non-faith schools often use the curriculum set by their Local Authority's SACRE committee (you can google that) or else, in key stage 4, will follow a GCSE syllabus instead

The SACRE defines how many hours of RE should be taught in key stage 4 in their area.

I did my GCSE’s in the 90’s but I have to say RE was one of my favourite ones. Growing up in a very white Christian area. It was the one I found most fascinating I loved learned for eg about the 5 pillars of Islam. I think it’s made me a much more rounded person. The exam wasn’t that hard either as the subject matter stuck with me.

DS is jn Y11. GCSE is offered and is very popular. The course focuses on ethics and philosophy etc rather than dogmatic doctrines.

DS is not doing RS, but the school incorporate philosophical , moral, ethical discussion and debate in Life Skills on years 10 and 11. (R/S is taught as an independent subject up to and including Y9),

The course my DD's took was re philosophy and ethics, definitely a great subject for all dc to study, atheist was an approved viewpoint if you wish, so it not what you think op

All those things are the type of issues that are part of my DC's RE GCSE course.
There is a strong emphasis on debate

RE is compulsory, the school have 3 choices:

• Make the GCSE compulsory for all
• Put the GCSE in an option block such as the humanities block, but then cram enough RE into the PSHE timetable that all students cover it without doing a GCSE
• Don't do GCSE at all, and cram it all into PHSE for everyone.

Given that the GCSE is relatively easy for most students; is already set up as a balanced course looking at different religions etc; can actually be taught quite creatively, I guess some schools go with the compulsory GCSE because it is a pre organised, balanced course which gets the kids thinking, is more interesting than something the PSHE teachers could cobble together, and gives the kids an extra qualification, which is something many of them will fine easier to pass.

If it were an option it would be blocked in Humanities I guess. I think whether schools would give them another option, yes so you could chose say one of History, Geography, Sociology, RE. If it was compulsory, that block would just have the other 3 and RE would be another GCSE. Or what my school did was 2 Humanities - everyone did "Integrated Humanities" and then you also had to choose a Humanities option, so if your option wasn't RE you'd still get some in the "Integrated Humanities".

are other subjects where you study theories which are outdated or patently false

RE GCSE doesn't teach things that are patently false - it teaches 'Islam believes...', 'Christianity believes...' - not God is real and Jesus died for our sins.

And yes - plenty of subjects teach things that are outdated or false - History, Economics, English, Geograohy, Sociology. Even science - hence why everyone thinks two brown eyed parents can't have a blue eyed child.

It IS a full GCSE in many schools now

If you are Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim whatever you answer from that perspective btw, school was 60% Asian

Religious Education (RE) is compulsory for all pupils in local authority maintained schools aged 5 to 16 years unless they are withdrawn from these lessons by their parents. So at Secondary level many schools think if they’ve got to study it, the pupils may as well get a GCSE out of it.

I personally think your view is quite ignorant of how RE is delivered in mainstream schools. It’s an academic subject in its own right that taught properly, incorporates critical thinking, philosophy, theology and an insight into other cultures. It’s not about religious brainwashing unless you’re sending your child to some extremely exclusive faith school. Why wouldn’t you want your children to learn about different beliefs?

It's compulsory to study re as part of pshe at most schools, they can choose not to take the exam but they have to take the course. It's not a full gcse always, there (was at least) a short course option though both of mine took the full GCSE and got a star as it was a doddle if you attend church and are able to write persuasively

I suppose the main question is: do the schools which do not make RS GCSE compulsory give you the option of another subject, then?

I think you need to realise all schools do things differently! Some have 11 GCSSs as standard, others only 8. If it's taught as part of PSHE, or to satisfy the NC requirement to study RE, it will only be an hour a week, possibly an hour a fortnight - nowhere near enough hours freed up for an extra subject - hence why some make the kids do the GCSE short course.