Non-religious state school requires Religious Studies at GCSE

[chillberry]

One of the non-religious state secondaries we're looking at requires Religious Studies at GCSE. This seems quite surprising and a bit disappointing tbh.

We're not a religious family, but we talk about respecting those who are religious and about the importance of learning about different religions and belief (or non-belief) systems. We don't mind the approach to RE at primary level, as our school is very inclusive. However, I'm not that keen on our DC being given no choice about pursuing RS at GCSE when they could be choosing other subjects that are of more interest to them.

I'm waiting to hear back from the school as to whether there's any flexibility around it, but would be curious about what others think. We didn't grow up in the British school system, so I'm wondering how common this is. No other similar school sin our London area require it.

It's compulsory in our non-religious state school and only about one person a year manages to opt-out.

It is the 0.5 GCSE which is compulsory taken in year 10 but if you take the full GCSE you don't take the half so do half less but its out of an option choice. They also have to do 1 ebacc humanity so history or geography. The 0.5 GCSE course is full of kids who don't want to be there but the full course is better as its those who opted for it. DD opted for full course to avoid the disruptive behaviour and to keep her GCSEs down to 11. She enjoys the ethics part but its not a subject she would have chosen normally but it is good for writing skills.

Our school have 4 options but they do more GCSEs than normal. History or geography and RE and double or triple science (ability based) and maths and 2 English are compulsory. Then the options need to be from 3 different groups and only subjects previously studied if a y8 option. It's not taught in a pro-religion way at all, our primary taught like that and had evangelical Christians in to teach it (DS much preferred it there but DD prefers secondary approach), but secondary is very questioning about religions at our school.

If you did manage to secure an opt-out at our school nothing is timetabled at the same time.

I would have removed dc if evangelical Christians turned up in school. That’s simply not acceptable. Here, it woke to fit with the agreed syllabus for primary RE either.

It would not fit .... (not woke!)

They taught the full curriculum about all religions and I wasn't aware they were evangelical Christians until some of the parents sent their kids to the summer day camps they ran and one of them was suggesting the children go to his church.

Though asked the kids about the lessons and they said the lessons were fine, there was no recruitment in those and it was signed off by LA etc. DS did get obsessed with religion when they were there and declared he was half Christian and half Muslim and would have a Muslim wife . I wasn't concerned as kids were always with me and lessons seemed fine but the holiday club I don't think they should have been allowed to promote, it also wasn't clear it was a religious holiday club. Though I think its generally just a Christian organisation and our person was evangelical but was odd. School was great otherwise (they gave DS a full-time TA out of their budget for a couple of years) and you don't get a choice in state schools in reality for primary at least by us.

Not compulsory at DC school. Whish it was instead of English literature (why do they need to have read Shakespeare?)

LA don’t sign off what individuals schools do but they do agree a curriculum. Letting in people like that was the decision of the head and should be completely avoided! A teacher can teach the RE curriculum. You don’t need to bring in a time to promote religion.

I teach religious studies, its not even just learning the main religions its more about WHY and HOW we study religion!

Our agreed syllabus is detailed and makes it clear that school must be transparent about how they deliver the curriculum, that progress of dc can be assessed and parents receive a report on progress in the subject. Therefore the fact you did not know who was in the classroom for this subject would not have met the criteria in my LA. It’s also a very wide curriculum for all key stages and certainly goes beyond details about a religion although for young DC that is included. It should never be “do as I do and believe in my beliefs”.

My dd chose RS as a GCSE and loved it (2 years ago) - she found it relatively easy and really enjoyed the discussions. They did Christianity and Islam as their main religions. My ds didn't choose it but wishes he had as the amount of content would have been less than history and geography (both of which he did do).
But most of my friends' children attend other state schools and have it as a requirement. Because they have to do an hour a week by law those schools see it as "well you might as well get a qualification out of it" I think.