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

@ParentOfOne well, I never marked for the board just within school but a respectfully phrased opposing opinion when it is required by the question was always fine. The examiner wants an answer to the question like in any examination.

@ParentOfOne it's compulsory (nationally) for them to do a certain number of hours of RE in Key Stage 4. Many schools choose to do the GCSE so students get some accreditation for learning they are doing anyway. Check with the school whether it is the full GCSE or the "short course" which is just a half GCSE. Our school does the short course and students sit the exam in Year 10. It ticks the box for the curriculum hours and frees up time in year 11 to concentrate on other subjects.

Many non-faith schools call it "Religion & Philosophy" rather than RE because it compares and contrasts different world views. It's really interesting and students enjoy it when it's taught well. My children did - they are both atheists and both got 9s in their RP GCSE.

Download some past papers and mark schemes and that'll answer your questions.

It's an easy win for somebody with reasonable literacy skills.

I think GCSE options are very relevant when choosing schools.

They have so few free choices usually, and I have a DC who is passionate about certain subjects. I would not have been happy if his choices were further constrained by adding a compulsory subject he has no interest in. (His school already require one humanities subject, so getting a critical thinking/ understanding the world type subject already).

I hadn’t thought about GCSE options when choosing schools (other than the fact that either he or the school would spontaneously combust if he set foot in a church school), so in our case we got lucky.

You understand the "buckets". Schools have to deliver RE in some form. A humanity subject )RE is one of them is a league table requirement at GCSE so it makes sense to offer it. If you withdraw your child from it they will likely spend that time in the library doing "Independent" study and miss out on a GCSE

Teaching of RE is compulsory in Key Stage 4, but the taking of an exam in it is not. If they said that the subject is compulsory, they are correct, but if they said that the GCSE is compulsory, they are not.
(Actually, I don't think it is technically compulsory for students to take exams in any of the compulsory subjects, but it's pretty much accepted that they should do.)

Yabu. The world might be a better place if everyone studied RE for a bit longer. It won't make your child religious, but they will learn about history, ethics and other cultures.

It’s an extra gcse why would you deny your child the chance to have one

I did it and am not remotely religious. It was fascinating and useful for my career.

I am head of RE at a non-faith secondary school.

RE as a subject is compulsory. However it is not a legal requirement that it is a GCSE. Schools do it in different ways:

some schools make it compulsory for everyone to do GCSE - if you’ve got to do it, you might as well get a qualification

some schools make it compulsory for some - at my school it is compulsory for the triple scientists to take it, we then have option classes, and everyone who doesn’t opt for the GCSE / does triple science does core (non-examined) RE.

some schools only offer core RE.

You do have the legal right to withdraw and the humanist society have templates on their website for you to send to school. However, if you choose to withdraw them there is no requirement for school to offer anything in its place - if everyone else is doing GCSE RE your child is not going to be offered the opportunity to do another subject .

it is a brilliant GCSE, it’s a brilliant A-level.

My son(like the rest of our family) is an atheist.
He is taking RE because he finds the psychology, sociology, history and philosophy aspects of the course really interesting.
It's not mandatory though PSHE is included in their general learning, it's not an option and I think they cover some elements of areas covered in RE.
History or geography is mandatory in my dc school.
Are you sure they haven't just added RE into that group?

Because schools have to include some RE in the Key Stage 4 curriculum, some reason that they might as well do the GCSE, or the short-course "half GCSE"; students may take it more seriously if it is examined. Other schools pay lip-service to the RE requirement, and cover it in occasional off-timetable days, or as part of a carousel with PSHE, so that they're not using up so much teaching time.

I think your worries about the content are unfounded. However if you are really bothered, parents technically have the right to withdraw their children from RE. That does not mean that they would get to do another subject instead, though; the school would have to find somewhere to put them during RE, but it's very unlikely that there would be another subject timetabled at that time.

Don't most sixth forms and universities look at all your GCSE scores anyway?

Often no as long as you meet the subject requirement - eg grade 7 maths required to do maths a level. A few sixth forms and a very few subjects at a handful of unis look at the best 8 GCSEs. So 8 x grade 9s and a 3 in RE will be regarded as the same as 9 grade 9s.

Students in DD’s school that refused to study RS were sent to do independent study in the library instead. I can’t see how their parents thought that was more beneficial!

If you withdraw her there will be a gap on the timetable, TT's are done in 'blocks' so doing another GCSE will probably not be an option

In the schools I have taught at it was a GCSE that all took because of they had to do it until year 11 anyway, they might as well add a qualification to their list. So the study was compulsory and thus the GCSE was. Ours studied different religions and considered ethical issues. All things you'd want rounded, well-educated kids to have learnt about really.

And if it is compulsory and part of the gcse timetable , dropping it is unlikely as there won't be an alternative option in that lesson slot nor any staff to supervise,

RE is compulsory unless a parent withdraws their child.

Many schools take the view that if they have to teach it the children may as well get a qualification (quite often the short course 0.5 gcse not the whole one)

Schools can make whatever timetabling and exam entry choices they want. Some schools mandate an mfl for example, others don't.

Withdrawing won't mean you get to choose a different gcse, it will either be a supervised study or eg some kind of citizenship lesson instead.

There'll be an ethics paper which forms the bulk of the syllabus - they'll study issues such as abortion, euthanasia, death penalty etc, lots of debate
Christianity will be another topic plus one other religion. Humanist/atheist views are also included.
I've taught RE for 28 years and am also an examiner

This! While you may have found some schools to be dogmatic, the GCSE curriculum won't allow that so shouldn't be a concern. They've got to have RE timetabled so often ends up as an extra GCSE (or half GCSE) - it won't replace one.

It involves lots about ethics and philosophy - good for debates.

You are massively overthinking this OP. It really isn’t as huge a deal as you’re making it out to be.

You clearly don't know what the GCSE actually entails