to be outraged that RE is a compulsory subject at GCSE level and History or a language aren't?

[seeker]

Well am I? I thought it was just my dd's very old fashioned school that insisted they study RE even if they aren't doing the exam, but I find out that it's a statutory requirement. So they can drop Modern Languages, History, Citizenship......but they have to do RE. And religious people say that thier faith doesn't impose on my life at all.

ANd I undersstand that it consits of reallly intersting discussion about issues of the day, and is really all about morality and philosophy and is mportant stuff, but why call it RE?

yup, outrageous and bloody stupid.

doing GCSE level stdy is not a legal requirement - many schools get around the law for some form of RE by eg. clssifying tutor time as RE..

Is it really statutory? That's OUTRAGEOUS. Blimey. I never did RE but I went to an indie in Scotland and our compulsory subjects to standard grade were English Maths 1xlanguage 1xscience subject. No compulsory history/ geog/ RE.

DS has to do a half GCSE in RE, and I am annoyed about it. I don't see why everyone would need a History GCSE either though,

YANBU: having this battle at my dc's primary school right now. Utterly, utterly infuriating.

DSD has compulsary RE GCSE which I think is outrageous. PE, Citizenship and IT GCSEs are also compulary .

She's doing 14 GCSEs FFS when you add in all this compulsary crap.

YANBU, I can't believe there's no compulsory language anymore, dd is only 4 but the only thing I think i'll be really insistent on is that she does a language, i'll be gutted if she doesn't.

GCSE subjects

Turns out that Citizenshipo is among the compusory options, but I know that ICT isn't any more - it was changed last year. So RE is and ICT isn't!

Would be better renamed. At our school it was compulsory and they had to take the GCSE but it was a half of one. I'm sure it is an interesting subject if taught in the right way.

It wasn't compulsory to take a MFL and DD didn't even, though I protested. Now she wants to study French at nightschool and do a GCSE in it.

Long sigh.

I'm an MFL teacher - currently unemployed. There are no jobs and MFL is being sidelined in schools.

I can never forgive the previous government for doing away with a compulsory language at GCSE.

So, so, so shortsighted and - on an international level - really embarrassing.

YANBU I am stunned! Dont know if its the same in Scotland, am off to check.

If it is, i will be telling the school i shall remove and home school ds.

ICT isn't compulsory now. Guess most people can use a computer so OK to drop it.

Citizenship was slotted in a lesson a week but no exam, afaik.

Really smugmum? I didn't realise it was that bad. I had been considering retraining as a MFL teacher, perhaps not eh?

I think it depends school to school. My eldest DD is yr10 and has to do RE GCSE AND ICT GCSE. Language GCSE wasn't compulsive but we talked to our DD about the importance of a language so she picked 1 and dropped the other.

Smugmum, DD has just started her A levels, she wants to do French GCSE at nightschool, one night a week, at the school, starting with beginners (trying to rope me into that one) then taking 4 terms to get to GCSE level. She did do French and German up until options but felt she wasn't learning anything.

Do you think it will be too much seeing as she has just gone into 6th form? I'm not sure whether to encourage or discourage (pressure emotion).

I think the lessons should be compulsory, not sure about the GCSE. I did GCSE RE and managed to get an A when I turned up for very few lessons Easy grade on the CV if nothing else. I actually found it quite interesting though, maybe that was why? Hmm...

Also don't think its fair to make someone do a language if they're really bad at it. Some people have a flare with languages, and some don't.

Marion Yes, sadly. At the school I was working at last term we had a student teacher from MMU (Manchester) and she reckoned that hardly anyone on her course had a job.

Teaching MFL is great and I really enjoy it so as a job it's fab. BUT, if I were you, I'd look at the TES website for jobs in your area to see how many are coming up (won't be many at this time of year btw) and speak to the college you're thinking of applying to and find out about how many of their students have jobs - and not how many are registered with agencies and doing supply.

I think it's going to be very interesting at dd's school - they are going to take issues in the news and think about them and discuss them in the context of morality. But that's not the point.

MillyR - I used History as an example - it seems to me that if they are going to spend an hour a week doing a non-examined subject, a bit of history would be a god thing to do.

This is wierd. Given all the complaints about 'useless' subjects like media studies not equipping DC for work, WTF make studying mythology compulsory? It's not an invalid choice, necessarily - you learn a lot about history and anthropology inthe course of studying myths and cults, but not everyone is interested in that sort of thing, nor should they have to be.

I think the teaching of RE should be removed from school almost entirely. If people want their children to know a lot about religion, they should teach it themselves.

As for languages, of course everyone should learn a language. It is far better to do badly in a language but at least be able to speak a little of the language than none at all.

about eve I actually teach evening classes and it requires a lot of dedication. You are just there for 2-3 hours a week and have no constant teacher input. I did GCSE Italian myself years ago in a year at evening classes. It was hard work.

Unfortunately, students don't realise taht picking up a language later on when you've got do much else goin gon is sooo much harder than doing it (for free) at school.

Sir boob I agree to a certain extent but the same could be said for all of the compulsory subjects, surely. I personally loathed maths and science but I still did them to O level. (Shows age).

Got too much else going on

As it is estimated that close to 80% of the world's population has some form of religious faith, I think study of the same up to GCSE level is reasonable, leading to an approximation of an adult understanding or appreciation of that major aspect of nearly 5 million people's lives. Whether one is a theist or not, it is wise to understand more about faiths since in many countries (though not the UK, it seems) it is a major part of the intellectual, political and cultural life. Whether one agrees that it should be or not, is not the point. Culturally and intellectually it is relevant and important to have an understanding that is slightly elevated from that of the average 13 yr old.

Also, RE lessons include more than the study of faiths, but ethics and moral philosophy and pure philosophy too.

I think its statutory position is fair enough. But I also think that a modern foreign language should be statutory, and history heavily recommended.

YABU initially I thought YANBU but it doesn't just teach about Christianity but about all religions. I'm not religious myself and think it's a load of hokum but you need knowledge to make an informed choice. Also it does teach us about our fellow man which you'd hope would lead to a little more tolerance.

I don't see it as either languages or RE - when I did O'levels in 1983 we had to choose at least 1 language, either History or Georgraphy and up to 2 sciences etc. REe was compulsory for us but I think that's because it was a C of E school.