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.

It was compulsory in my school. Although it was a catholic school. I don't think we have it a second thought. It was an easy subject.

It's compulsory that it's taught, some schools decide if they're going to teach it they may as well get a qualification. It's very hard to teach a lesson everyone knows counts for nothing.

Every school we went to look round said it was compulsory (none religious) so I assume it's easier/makes their stats look good - maybe something about a basket of 5 gcses?
The 2 "better" open evening explained the ethics/critical thinking elements of the course that they said supported overall learning.
I like the idea of the short course examined in year 10 - hope they have that at dd1's school.

I’m finding this talk of it being compulsory at GCSE in some way interesting because my gcse child definitely has no timetabled RE lessons, and one pshe lesson per fortnight. They have a pshe day a few times per year so maybe they cover some bits through that.

Its compulsory to do RE in all schools its just not compulsory normally to do it as a full GCSE. But I suspect if its a compulsory GCSE they might be taking it away from the curriculum in the lower years and doing something extra in this time. My sons school does half a RE. In A Levels, RE and Philosophy and Ethics is seen as the same thing.

I think you've misunderstood why the right for withdrawal from RE actually means.
Parents can withdraw their child from RE if they wish to provide their own RE. The school (if following SACRE guidance which maintained schools are legally obliged to) should not allow parents to withdraw their child from RE to study otter subjects or read. They will not and can not provide other lessons or teaching staff
Under the right to withdraw, parents are supposed to provide alternative RE work

There will be no option to 'withdraw' or 'sit in the library' while the rest of his year go to RE lessons - that would require a member of staff to supervise and schools are short enough of staff even without 1:1 supervision.

It's a shame you and your son are unhappy because I can tell you as a member of staff who writes the timetable that there will be no flexibility afforded to anyone who doesn't want to do RE GCSE.

It's unfortunate and I understand you are disappointed but the school will not make any routine exceptions if they have decided on this as a policy.

Every school we went to look round said it was compulsory (none religious) so I assume it's easier/makes their stats look good - maybe something about a basket of 5 gcses?
It doesn't necessarily make the stats look better.
Progress 8 is the current performance measure for school and RE would be one of the open bucket subjects.

studying just 2 religions makes the whole thing useless and dated. def. don't force him to study it.

My 3 DC all did compulsory RS GCSE in very different types of schools. I found it quite interesting looking at their work and for one of my DC who wasn't doing history I think it provided balance to their choices.

I would feel the same if he was being made to do french, or health and social care or drama or any other subject that he wasn't interested in or didn't want to do.

There are plenty of kids who aren't interested in maths, English and science. But everyone has to do GCSEs in them.

Ooh maybe then! Maybe they think they'll hit it out the ball park!

A lot of schools make you take a language

My kids dropped it for the start of gcses and had no RE lessons. Is that because it was private school or would they have covered the compulsory part in PHSE then?

For sure they never had any timetabled RE lessons after year 9

My DC's both took compulsory RE. Despite their/out initial reluctance as to what it would be (we're an atheist household), they both loved it. It's a really good core GCSE, with the bonus that it's relatively easy to get a high grade, because as long as you can produce a cohesive argument on a topic, there's no right of wrong. The focus is definitely on philosophy and ethics and the religious side is more about how the religions view various topics. It got my DCs discussing real world topics such as euthanasia, abortion and the death penalty. I'd say it was a far more useful GCSE than half the subjects they did at that level.

*apologies for spelling mistakes (I genuinely got an A in English Language!😂)

Legally required to teach RE
So either the school could demonstrate they were fulfilling their obligations by covering the adopted syllabus through other lessons/assembly/form time/drop down days or someone was incompetent and didn't correctly understand the education act

I'd be furious OP. I can't believe people are defending it. Lots of subjects are interesting and useful - history, geography, languages - but you can't study them all, and kids should be allowed to make some choices themselves.

You could withdraw from RE lessons, but it wouldn't mean that your son would get to do something else - he's just get one fewer GCSE.

I can understand your frustration, but I would suggest that the best thing you can do is help your son to see the value of it and set the expectation that he works hard and does as well as he can. RS is often taught very well and it is a very manageable course so it is likely that if he takes it seriously he will do well.

The parent does have a right to withdraw and this is not conditional on them providing their own religious education, although they can if they wish to. I am sure @prh47bridge would be happy to clarify the legal position here. He has advised other people on this matter.

What the school cannot do is withdraw a child from RS to teach them more maths for example. The school has to legally make available RS to all children, the children do not have to attend (if their parent withdraws them). So although the parents have the right to withdraw, the school could not replace that GCSE with a different one, so OP's child would have one less GCSE and time each week in which they cannot be set other work, although they can work independently.

As OP's child would just prefer to do a different subject that is unlikely to be an option so probably best to do RS as many children do well in it, there is not too much to revise and as others have said the ethics can really help to develop critical reasoning skills.

It's in the 1944 Education Act
Section 25
Point 5

The School Standards Act 1998, section 71 (1) states that if a parent requests that a child is excused then they shall be excused. Shall means that it the school's legal duty to excuse the child. Later it states that should a parent additionally desire that the child have alternative religious education then they may be additionally be educated elsewhere during that time. May means that this is an option but not a requirement.

There is a difference between your ds not finding it interesting and it not being relevant for him. Reading the thread, I think this is what those you seem to feel are lecturing you are picking up on.

Many will say, "I won't ever use RE." However, we all do in daily life

We use it to understand religious diversity
We use it to put our views across *religious and non religious
We use it to understand how other countries work.
Also, the RE gcse is about arguing your side. Dd3 took RE GCSE. She got an 8. She is an athetist she dislikes religion. (It is compulsory at the school she was in) The cause taught her how to argue her point or view. How to contrast it with other views and how to deaw conclusions.
She is studying astrophysics at the moment and admits the GSCE helped teach her how to put her views across (still claims was boring.)
That is an important life skill..

It was compulsory at DS's school too (not religious, grammar). It was for the reason that they had to study the subject and may as well get a qualification.

I felt the same as you and was cross about it at the time of GCSE selection as DS didn't want to do it and had to cut some subjects he did want to do.

However, a couple of years on, he got a grade 9, it was not hard yet quite interesting and it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. There was no need to be cross.

I'm afraid you are completely wrong.

The 1944 Education Act was repealed in 1996. Section 25 was repealed even earlier - 1991. It therefore doesn't matter what it says. It isn't the law any more. But, even if it was, it doesn't say what you think it does.

Subsection 25(4) gives parents the right to withdraw their child from religious worship and/or religious education. That right is absolute and unqualified. It does not require parents to do anything other than tell the school what they want.

Subsection 25(5) deals with the situation where the parent wants their child to receive religious instruction of a different kind to that provided by the school, the child cannot be sent to a school that provides that kind of religious instruction and the parents or the LA have arranged for the child to receive religious instruction elsewhere. In that situation, it allows the parents to take their child out of school at the beginning or end of the day to receive that religious instruction. That is in addition to the rights given by 25(4).

The important point is that 25(5) only applies when the conditions in 25(5)(a), (b) and (c) are met. If those conditions are not met, 25(5) does not apply but 25(4) continues to apply.

The law today is set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, section 71. Subsection 71(1) provides that parents can withdraw their child from religious education. As with the 1944 Act, that right is absolute and unqualified. It also allows sixth form pupils to withdraw themselves. Subsection 71(3) and 71(4) broadly echo subsection 25(5) of the 1944 Act, allowing parents who want their child to receive a different type of religious education to that provided by the school to take the child out of school at the beginning or end of the day to receive that religious education.