School have made RS compulsory at GCSE.

[spongebunnyfatpants]

Does anyone have any advice please or anyone been in this situation before.
We have received the options for our child's GCSE's next year. The school (an academy) has made Religious Studies complusary.
My son is gutted because it's not an option that he would have picked and it means that he loses out on one of his other options that he really wants to do.
I imagine that for many of the pupils it will be a waste of a GCSE.
I have looked on the internet and from what I can gather it says that schools can make a subject complusary, however it also says that parents can chose to opt out of RS at any stage in their child's education.
Obviously this is something I'll be contacting school about
Has anyone ever done this before at GCSE level and can you talk me through the process please.
Thank you.

I actually think RS should be compulsory at all schools. Religion (rightly or wrongly) has a huge impact on the world around us, and ethics is (imo) a massively important thing for people to have a good grounding in.

If you are able to pull DS out of the RS gcse he probably won't be able to do a different one, just sit doing study in the library.

Everyone studies maths and English at every stage of school, but it is generally accepted that it's a good thing because as they get older they learn more complex skills and (in English at least) deal with more complex themes. The same will be true if he studies the same two religions - there will be a much greater depth of study at gcse.

Capital punishment, human rights, medical ethics... Is that not philosophy/ethics rather than RE? If you look at it through a religious lense only, won't it be much more restricted?

Paper 1 is Philosophy

Ethics, human rights etc are all important, but are all covered in PHSE too.

I understand that these areas will be looked at in greater depth in the GCSE, but my child and (judging by the other parents response) the majority of the students in the year don't need or want to study it any further than they already have.

They will not learn or gain anything from it if they aren't interested.

I would have thought schools who are so focused on results would want pupils to do subjects that are interested in so they will engage more and get better results.

@MrWhippersnapper regardless of how many topics there are, they are not relevant and are of no use to him.

@Tumbleweeder theres an open evening in a couple of weeks to discuss all the options. So I guess we'll find out more then, I guess if alot of parents complain it might change their minds.

My year 10s are looking at euthanasia and we’re doing the Jodie and Mary conjoined twins case where one had to die to save the other. That’s the ethics bit, but the parents were strict catholics who didn’t want them separated, and looking at their reasons why is the religion bit.

Not relevant ?! Whatever 🙄. Read the syllabus, properly this time

Or maybe the school could stop being incompetent and share the correct information with parents.

Or maybe the op should not say she’s read the syllabus when she clearly hasn’t, just a handout from school

It was compulsory at my secondary school, I was opted out of RE, our school has option blocks A-E, so none of mine contained RE and I gained GCSEs that I actually wanted, rather than wasting hours of my schooling.

My DC’s school have a compulsory RS GCSE too.

Not all parents are happy about it it as it cuts down on other GCSE options.
Many have made their feelings known to the school, so we are waiting to see if anything changes.

It's actually a good set of skills and essay writing

Yes it's an interesting gcse

They will not learn or gain anything from it if they aren't interested.

The same could be said of maths. But we make everyone study that up to gcse.

The reality is they have to find space in a crowded timetable to have RS lessons anyway so many schools do run their RS offering as a short course or full GCSE as they have to attend anyway. It is a useful essay writing gcse to have and as already mentioned covers more than religion. The whole point about doing more than one religion and its views or takes on issue is precisely so it doesn''t force a religion on anyone and shows that their are choices (and you can even choose none!)

For the poster who says it would be more helpful to have different compulsories most schools do have maths, English x 2, double, triple or 3 individual sciences as compulsory and a good number an MFL.

If it's compulsory there no chance your DC will be able to drop it

I'm interested as to why your child has already 'picked their options' before you were aware that RS was a compulsory GCSE

It's totally normal for a subject to be made compulsory, it's the decision of the school to do so and that's pretty much it. You want different options, go to a different school.

It is compulsory in law for your child to study RE whether or not he sits an exam in it. So he may as well get a gcse out of it. To say academic learning about religion is irrelevant to him is very ignorant about the global world you are both living in.

Was compulsory at our comp/academy. It turned out to be quite interesting in the end. Pretty much everyone was annoyed about it. But actually some really took to it and went on to do A levels. For others, it was an easy one to score highly. I don't know anyone who managed to get out of doing it.

@MrWhippersnapper yes it's not relevant for him. Not everyone is interested in the subject.

I understand it's your subject and you're obviously passionate about, but you need to stop being so defensive. I was asking for help and support not a lecture. So if you have nothing further relevant to say then please remove yourself from my thread.

@Simonjt thank you.

@NoMoreAgeJokes it will be interesting to see what happens at both schools.

RE was compulsory when my DS did his GCSE’s 2 years ago

My son’s grammar school made it compulsory four years ago. Not a academy or religious school. I just assumed the govt had made it compulsory. I read the syllabus and was pleasantly surprised. It was more historical and covered all the main religions. I felt it was very relevant and useful.

If you don’t want comments don’t post on a public forum . I’ll comment on whatever I like, thanks

You may find they don't have timetabled PSHE because RE includes so much morality and ethics.

It normal for it to be compulsory. You have time to change schools if you don't like it.

@MoneyInTheBananaStand the school only sent the information out to parents today. It has not been complusary in previous years.

My child has known for a while which options he would like to take, he has a number of different scenarios planned out in his head depending on timetabling.

I’ve had children in 3 different schools. All have had RE (or equivalent) as a compulsory subject. I think of it as another essay writing GCSE but easier than History.

RS is about more than just religion.

Ethics, morality, mortality, debate, power/control, duty, kindness.

I'm an atheist, and I attended a religious school, and RS (or RE as it was back in my day) was a really interesting subject.

It makes one more open minded. Maybe you could study along with your dc.