...to expect students and parents to take my subject seriously?

[TeacherAnonymous123]

Issue coming from another thread I posted, so thought I would ask for people's opinions.

I teach Religious Studies at a Catholic Secondary School. As it is my subject, I am clearly biased, but I believe that students learning about other religions and cultures is extremely important for their development and attitude towards the world and other people.

As it is a Catholic school, students must take RS at GCSE. Their first exam in it is tomorrow morning and some of them are still apathetic, telling me that parents have said not to bother trying as it isn't an important subject and it doesn't matter if they fail.

Obviously this leads to a battle in lesson which I cannot win as I do not have support from parents.

So parents - do you think RS is an important and relevant subject? If not, why not?

I hated it at school and we were forced to take it.

We didn’t do any other religion though it was all Christianity. We learnt nothing about other religions. I think if we had I’d have taken it more seriously as it would’ve been more interesting.

@DeadbeatYoda some schools incorporate it into the PHSE lessons for Years 10/11.

A total waste of time. Children can learn the basics of other religions without studying for a GCSE.

I think it is a valuable subject.

One of my sons is taking it and it is 50% ethics/philosophy and 50% learning about World religions. He really enjoys it.

Like all humanities, it allows him to learn about sources and referencing and to write a well argued essay. In addition, if you want to study literature, a good grasp of the main religious texts and ideas is invaluable.

Making any subject compulsory (I taught Physics) makes it much harder to teach as you will always find pupils who are uninterested and disengaged. As Science teachers, we were always jealous of the humanities teachers with their smaller classes of engaged pupils (as they had actively opted for the subject) so I must admit to a little schadenfreude at the OP having to teach RE as a compulsory subject……

S@SluggyMuggy "A total waste of time. Children can learn the basics of other religions without studying for a GCSE."

Say you haven't read the GCSE Syllabus without saying you haven't read the GCSE syllabus.....

No, I don't think it's an important subject, but I am not Catholic and would never send my child to a religious school. It's bad enough that they teach RS in state primary schools.

It's possible that the parents suggesting it doesn't matter if their children fail this subject also aren't religious and have sent their child to your school because it was the only/best option in the area, not because they were keen for the religious element of the education.

What is the actual value in doing well in this subject? Where could one take that in terms of further education/career? If the result isn't specific to that, I can understand the 'doesn't really matter' attitude to the exam.

@C152 "What is the actual value in doing well in this subject? Where could one take that in terms of further education/career? If the result isn't specific to that, I can understand the 'doesn't really matter' attitude to the exam."

To be honest, I think ethics, philosophy and a knowledge of world religions has more value to most people than chamistry.

I think the actual value in doing well in any subject forced or not is the discipline and general rigour of doing something well. Having a good mark in any GCSE is way more useful in life than failing one in very general terms.

Think this is part of the issue. As the best performing school in the area parents will want to send their kids to you and have no interest whatsoever in religious studies or the catholic faith so will not hold it in any high regard. I know of atheist friends who baptised their kids just to send them to a RC primary as it was a feeder for a high performing secondary. I personally think it's disgusting and makes a mockery of the faith but equally would not want my child to be in that environment when it does not sit well with my beliefs just to get into a particular school. Sounds like many of your students fall into this category of just ' catholic' while it suits their agenda.

Absolutely irrelevant

My experience of compulsory RS st secondary schools does not mean particularly learning about lots of religions more focusing on Catholicism and Christianity.

I would rather my dc were doing a philosophy and ethics based gcse.

I went to a Catholic school. I was a practising Catholic when I started at 11, by 16 I was a complete atheist. I really enjoyed RE, and we all loved our RE teacher. The lessons were great, really informative, well rounded and we had some great discussions. But, we also had to take it as a GCSE. Most of us didn't care about religion by the time we were in Year 11. Yes, the lessons were interesting and enjoyable, but making us do an exam on it just added to the extra stress we were under. I didn't study for mine, I concentrated on the important subjects.

I think it's really important for learning about other cultures, helping children develop an open mind to people with different beliefs, learning about ethics and developing critical thinking skills. I loved RE at school.
Unfortunately I am constantly trying to reinforce the importance of it to my 15 yo who is working 4 grades below his target (meeting or exceeding in all other subjects). He does not see it as important, he finds it really boring and doesn't think it's relevant at all. He is also at a Catholic School (I wasn't) he tells me, which may or may not be true, that there is so much more focus on Christianity in the RE lessons than other religions and that several times a day they have to pray and there is constant reference to scripture in all lessons. Maybe the level of discussion around religion in Catholic Schools spoils the interest in RE? Or is it just as bad in non faith schools?

Non religious school but had to do GCSE, and it was year 10 so it was good practice for the real ones. For my son, the only GCSE he ever sat being a covid year

I also teach in a Catholic school, but teach a core subject (although RE is supposedly core in our school because of the Catholic thing and it has to be 10% of the timetable). TBH, parents sent their kids to the school because it’s a good school, and not because of the Catholic ethos. There isn’t another school nearby for locals, so it’s either use the Catholic school or kids get the bus a bit further out to non faith school. Parents send them to us for ease, not for the religious. There’s a tiny percentage of kids that go to church regularly, or that take part in masses or confirmation etc. If the school dropped the Catholic agenda, I don’t think it would impact negatively on numbers at all. In fact, I think it would impact positively on numbers and would attract more staff; being a catholic school puts people off.

I often have students who complain about RE and ask me what the point of it is, and I tell them it’s an extra GCSE. Plus it looks bad if they get 7s in everything and a 1 in RE; it looks like they lick and choose what to put effort into. We often have groups of boys who find it funny just to bomb the subject and do terribly at it.

Saying this, my children went to the school and I really didn’t care about the subject, if anything I was annoyed that it took up so many lessons per week (with the 10% rule) and I’d have rather it was spent on other subjects or PSHE. I think the issue is that they’re Catholic schools but publicly funded, whereas if they were private then people would maybe take it more seriously if they were choosing to pay to send their kids to one. I’d be gutted for my results if I were in your shoes, I’m not sure how you get them to care.

It is very important for children to learn about religion and philosophy at school, but it is not important for them to do well in the GCSE unless it’s likely to be the only one they get.

My dc hated doing RE at school, made no effort at all and still came out with a 9. Pointless.

The thing is that's going to happen with any subject that is compulsory but not generally specified for college / uni / job entry requirements. I see the same with Welsh GCSE in Wales. It IS less important for their future than English, maths or science. That's not to say it isn't very useful, and that all grades aren't important, but if you are prioritising you are going to put the ones you need for you future goals or the ones you picked because you enjoy them first, and parents of teens do need to pick their battles sometimes. Also, how kids report back what their parents said probably exaggerates it.

I do think it's a shame because I suspect a lot of young people who would have picked and enjoyed the subject end up not enjoying it as much because if the behaviour of the class, needing to cater to a wider range of students etc. Again, I see the same happening with compulsory Welsh. Interestingly a few years ago most schools on Wales seemed to teach RE GCSE as at least a short course because it was compulsory to 16, but now most seem to have found a way round it eg incorporating it into a fortnightly non examined PSE lesson or doing a btec or ncfe in Equality and Diversity. And although I see less young people taking RE, I seem to see a much higher proportion actually enjoying it if they are taking it.

“Extremely important” 😂 well no it isn’t OP.

I think it’s a useful subject as it teaches understanding and tolerances.

My DD didn’t go to a faith school, but she had to take GCSE RS in year 10.

it was an additional GCSE and so time wasn’t taken away from other subjects in order to study for it.

She really enjoyed the subject but would have liked to have studied different religions rather Christianity and Islam. I think Buddhism and Judaism would have been more interesting for her as religions.

We had compulsory RE at my catholic school and I agree that it is not a subject which is given a lot of focus. While I agree that an awareness of other religions, their beliefs and celebrations is very valuable on a societal level - the syllabus was very much weighted towards one religion, we had a single lesson covering all the others and the syllabus was very dry (even though the teacher tried his best). Also a qualification in this field was not really helpful towards any particular career I had in mind. In most cases I can see why it is low priority due to those factors. I have learned much more about differing religions in adulthood.

No I have not. But I do not want them to be taught more than the basics of other religions by school.

Absolutely. You find your own way with religion, not by someone teaching you.
No disrespect to the OP but I don’t see how her own beliefs are kept out of the lesson.

They have to do half RS GCSE at DDs school and she did find it pretty uninspiring but then discovered in Y10 that the full GCSE syllabus was much more interesting, has moved to that and is now enjoying it. Religion may not be a big motivating factor for quite a lot of people in the UK but it is for a very significant portion of the worlds populace and even if you aren't religious yourself it helps to understand their viewpoints as well as linking in to history, current affairs and some scientific quandaries.

This was also my experience. It was a compulsory GCSE in my Catholic school and we were taught St Mark's gospel as fact with not a single mention of any other religion. I hated every minute and it was a complete waste of time - I would have loved the option of a third language or geography instead.

I am fundamentally against faith schools of any denomination so while I agree that awareness of all religions is beneficial in terms of understanding society, it should not be heavily in favour of one. If you want to teach your children about a certain religion then that should be done at home or in a church, not a school

Sectarianism was and still is rife where I grew up and I have no doubt that it starts at age 5 when you are told that you can’t go to the same school as your friend across the road because he has to go to the Catholic school or vice versa. The fights between schools, with a religious undertone, happened regularly

To ask someone “what school did you go to” is not done because you are interested in their academic achievements…..

In fact it was only a generation ago that if you put down on a job application that you went to a Catholic school you would be automatically rejected.

Also surprised that OP as a non Catholic can teach in a Catholic school. As far as I was aware from teacher friends I know that wasn’t allowed and teacher training for catholic schools was separate from that for non denominational schools. Is that because of a teaching crisis?