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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Dropping RE in Year 11

16 replies

DataColour · 06/01/2025 11:48

My DS is struggling with RE and his recent mock result was a 3. He hasn't always struggled as he got 8/9s at the beginning of year 10. It is a compulsory subject at his school.
He's lost all interest in it and won't study for it anymore. He's been asked to attend extra revision classes during lunch and won't be going. My DH is supportive of this as he doesn't see the point of RE and happy for him to fail it. We haven't spoken to school yet, and I'm worried that this will have a consequence for Uni applications. My DH is a 6th form teacher and he says it won't matter a jot. Is this true?
DS is doing 10 GCSEs (including the RE) and also further maths.

Any experiences of this situation or similar would be greatly appreciated.

OP posts:

AelinAG · 06/01/2025 12:03

If he fails it or doesn’t turn up to the exam, he will still be awarded the GCSE but as a U, fail.

It probably won’t impact on his life going forward, but does need to be declared on UCAS.

If he was trying to go for the most competitive courses at the highest tariff uni, it might count against him but probably not if the rest of his application/interview/admissions tests were very competitive. For other unis, shouldn’t matter, but I would be wary of the messaging it gives to say ‘just give up on that if it’s hard and you don’t need to turn up to revision sessions’. Getting a 4 in RE, for a student who was previously getting 8s, shouldn’t be a big ask.

BarnacleBeasley · 06/01/2025 12:10

I don't have recent experience, but I do remember from my very distant schooldays at a shitty school where no-one did any work for French that pretty much everyone scraped low passing grades except one boy who didn't turn up to the oral. The teacher was really upset as she thought she'd get in trouble for entering him for the GCSE in the first place when this was obviously going to happen, and the other pupils were outraged and offered to beat him up for her (she was touched at the thoughtfulness, but declined).

Anyway, what I take from this is that if you talk to the school they may be willing not to enter him for the exam, even if he still has to attend the compulsory lessons. It's better for them not to have a very low or failing grade on their records, and they have to pay to enter him.

HPandthelastwish · 06/01/2025 12:10

I doubt they'll let him drop it as there won't be anywhere to go to be supervised.

A 3 won't make any difference to anything but if he is good at other essay type subjects he'll likely to be able to wing alot of the ethics questions.

Sticking at it, whether he likes it or not is a good lesson in life. We all have to do things at work we don't want to.

Thingsthatgo · 06/01/2025 12:42

The drop in grades would indicate that he isn't struggling with the subject, he just can't be bothered with it.
Although I don't agree with RE being compulsory, it is a a decent GCSE to have, and if, with a bit f effort, he could get a decent grade I would encourage him to knuckle down.

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 06/01/2025 12:47

RE isn't compulsory as an exam and no university would care if he doesn't have it as a qualification (unless he plans to read Theology and even then it's probably not a deal breaker).

You could ask for him not to be entered for the exam if he's definitely going to fail and then it won't show up on the results sheet... and he can just attend lessons in the interests of a broad education.

I have a similar situation with my DD where she is 99.9% not sitting the exams for a particular subject, but it's less hassle for her to attend the lessons. She doesn't do revision or homework, but does do the work in class and everyone is much happier, and hopefully she'll have some knowledge at the end of it all.

FWIW you actually only need 5 GCSEs including English and Maths for university. The other subjects are there to access the A level courses.

WorldMap24 · 06/01/2025 12:50

Is he taking Geography or History? So long as he has another humanities subject in the bag I wouldn't be too worried

homemadepopcorn · 06/01/2025 12:53

I agree with the previous poster re this seeming like he simply can’t be bothered to do the content for this. I think you would be doing him a disservice in the long term allowing him to simply drop it. There would unlikely be any impact when applying to university unless he was applying to somewhere highly competitive. However there will likely be elements of his degree that he will not enjoy, and these will obviously not be optional, so I think it is worth encouraging him to at least try and pass.

BarnacleBeasley · 06/01/2025 13:01

Re. not being bothered, I think it's worth having a chat about why he's not doing the work or willing to go to the extra lessons. Teenagers take themselves and the world very seriously, and if he thinks he has good reasons for not wanting to do RE (even if from an adult perspective they don't seem very convincing), and he's working hard at his other subjects, then I wouldn't be that worried. I'm sure he knows that sometimes in life you have to suck it up and do things you don't want to do - but if he's bright then he is probably also aware that this isn't really one of those times.

When I was in sixth form I had a similar-ish situation when I was entered for General Studies A Level and didn't really want to do it. At my college, which was very underfunded, you had to repay the entry fees if you didn't turn up, and my dad offered to pay it for me. In the end I chose to just sit the (pointless, not needed for any future endeavours) exam, but I appreciated being trusted and supported to make my own judgment.

Original poster

DataColour · 06/01/2025 15:39

He is doing Geography too.

He doesn't want to go to the extra lessons because he doesn't want to do anymore RE! He doesn't want to miss out on his lunchtime to do extra work for it.
It's difficult because DH is completely on his side, which I can understand to a certain extent as he could devote more of his time to other subjects.

Thanks for the advice....it's really helpful.

OP posts:

BarnacleBeasley · 06/01/2025 16:03

Oh yes, can totally see why he wouldn't want to go to the extra lessons - I mainly meant finding out why he's not trying hard at it in class, if he's suddenly dropped grades and is otherwise bright. If he thinks he is trying but is inexplicably not good at it, it does seem a bit pointless to be putting in time and effort to improve at something you don't like and aren't good at when you could be working harder at the things you can do well in.

PerpetualOptimist · 06/01/2025 18:55

It sounds like the school wants your DS to sit 11 GCSEs (10+ FM at GCSE or equivalent). Fewer than 2% of 16 year olds sitting GCSE last summer took that many. So it is lot, and there is a risk of grade dilution, so it is understandable why your DS is looking to lighten the load somehow. Perhaps there is an opportunity to help your DS see how he can organise his time to support meaningful study across all his subjects.

My DC had to take the RE GCSE exam and said that, with hindsight, it was a good way of exploring 'ethics and tolerance'. It is a pity your DH is not being supportive of efforts to encourage your DS to take the subject more seriously. Presumably DH was aware of the kind of (academically focused?) school it was at point of enrolling your DS. Is it that DH does not 'rate' RE compared with some other subjects and that prejudice is perhaps showing through?

LIZS · 06/01/2025 19:12

homemadepopcorn · 06/01/2025 12:53

Agree. If he applied himself in lesson time he would not need to attend the extra sessions! Is the gcse the only religious education lesson?

LadyLapsang · 06/01/2025 22:47

Is your DS at a faith school? Is he hoping to continue there in Year 12/13? It sounds like he is not applying himself, not struggling. In 6 months time the exams will be almost over. In the words of Sir Winston, KBO.

Original poster

DataColour · 07/01/2025 13:54

It's not a faith school, but a lot of the intake is religious so they get good results in it, so it's become compulsory.
Yes, I guess not applying himself is a better analysis of the situation. No, he isn't planning on staying at his current school for 6th form.
I don't know if the GCSE in RE is the only RE lesson, but he tells me that he only has it once a week now whereas it was more than that in year 10.
He didn't mind doing it until recently, but perhaps due to all the other subjects ramping up and needing attention, that are far more important to him going forward, he is trying to prioritise and resents having to give it headspace.

OP posts:

BarnacleBeasley · 07/01/2025 14:03

So it sounds like the school are providing RE once a week as part of their duty to cover the topic, and they enter all the pupils for the GCSE because they might as well have another GCSE and it's good for their results overall? And your DS already has enough GCSE subjects and would rather be focusing on those? In that case, I'd have no problem at all in at least asking the school to consider not entering him for the exam.

Original poster

DataColour · 07/01/2025 14:56

Yes I do wonder if they have already covered the curriculum for GCSE RE (it's the full GCSE) and now it's just the core RE lessons in which they will probably just do revision. Hope so, in which case, that should be sufficient for him to pass it at least if he applies himself during the lessons.

OP posts:

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