Can a school make Religious Studies GCSE compulsory? Can one withdraw?

[ParentOfOne]

One of the state, non-faith secondary schools we like makes GCSE in Religious Studies compulsory. This is in England.

It is not a deal breaker, but we would like to understand what the rules are.

At the open day, the school said that it's a national requirement. But that's not what the gov uk website says https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/key-stage-3-and-4 , and indeed not all schools even offer RS GCSE. So did the school just lie to us? Not a great sign!

So the question becomes: can a school make RS GCSE compulsory, or can parents object?

I am all for kids learning about religions, but my reservations are:

• It may be more useful to take other subjects at GCSE; it is still possible to study RS in earlier years without using up a GCSE subject for it
• No one can know if our child will grow up to be religious or not, but she is the kind of person who brooks no bullshit. The teaching of RS can be dogmatic in some schools.
• It is fine to study other cultures and religious theories and preferences, but we should also call out what is backward and scientifically unfounded - e.g. when the Catholic Church said that the HIV virus can still pass through condoms, or when some fundamentalists think that evolution is wrong.
• My concern is therefore twofold: I worry that some of this nonsense might be taught as valid, rather than as un unsubstantiated theory, and I worry that, with her attitude, she would react very badly to the teaching of this nonsense. These concerns are based on the experiences of some friends, in non-faith state schools elsewhere.

Yabu. The world might be a better place if everyone studied RE for a bit longer. It won't make your child religious, but they will learn about history, ethics and other cultures.

Teaching of RE is compulsory in Key Stage 4, but the taking of an exam in it is not. If they said that the subject is compulsory, they are correct, but if they said that the GCSE is compulsory, they are not.
(Actually, I don't think it is technically compulsory for students to take exams in any of the compulsory subjects, but it's pretty much accepted that they should do.)

You understand the "buckets". Schools have to deliver RE in some form. A humanity subject )RE is one of them is a league table requirement at GCSE so it makes sense to offer it. If you withdraw your child from it they will likely spend that time in the library doing "Independent" study and miss out on a GCSE

I think GCSE options are very relevant when choosing schools.

They have so few free choices usually, and I have a DC who is passionate about certain subjects. I would not have been happy if his choices were further constrained by adding a compulsory subject he has no interest in. (His school already require one humanities subject, so getting a critical thinking/ understanding the world type subject already).

I hadn’t thought about GCSE options when choosing schools (other than the fact that either he or the school would spontaneously combust if he set foot in a church school), so in our case we got lucky.

Download some past papers and mark schemes and that'll answer your questions.

It's an easy win for somebody with reasonable literacy skills.

@ParentOfOne it's compulsory (nationally) for them to do a certain number of hours of RE in Key Stage 4. Many schools choose to do the GCSE so students get some accreditation for learning they are doing anyway. Check with the school whether it is the full GCSE or the "short course" which is just a half GCSE. Our school does the short course and students sit the exam in Year 10. It ticks the box for the curriculum hours and frees up time in year 11 to concentrate on other subjects.

Many non-faith schools call it "Religion & Philosophy" rather than RE because it compares and contrasts different world views. It's really interesting and students enjoy it when it's taught well. My children did - they are both atheists and both got 9s in their RP GCSE.

@ParentOfOne well, I never marked for the board just within school but a respectfully phrased opposing opinion when it is required by the question was always fine. The examiner wants an answer to the question like in any examination.

E.g. if a question asks what the Catholics think of contraception, in addition to explaining why they oppose it, can one add that the Church made scientifically false statements about the HIV virus passing through condoms, or would that be frowned upon

OP - GCSE exams ask questions. Students get marks for answering the question. Examiners don't give two shits what students think. So why would you encourage your kid to waste precious exam time writing stuff that doesn't answer the question.

That goes for all exams. If her History GCSE asks about the causes of the Second World War do you really think it would be useful for her to write about how war is bad and everyone should promote peace? Or comment on why she didn't agree with characters in her English Lit texts - answer the question providing evidence to support your answer.

How are papers marked? Is calling out bullshit allowed?
E.g. if a question asks what the Catholics think of contraception, in addition to explaining why they oppose it, can one add that the Church made scientifically false statements about the HIV virus passing through condoms, or would that be frowned upon?

well you could, but you would get no marks because it doesn’t answer the question. It’s the academic subject of religion, not a long rant about your own personal beliefs.

How does this work? Do they explicitly study atheist authors? E.g. Bertrans Russell, Sartre, Dawkins, etc?

at GCSE it’s not that detailed. At A-level all of those scholars appear on the specification

It is much more 'catholics believe .... however many other people think ..... , i think ....' in terms of approach.

It wouldn't be helpful in an exam to start non relevant arguments which wouldn't gain marks.

For DD's 25% was Christian beliefs and practices, 25% was Muslim beliefs and practices, and 4×12.5%% was ethical areas (eg family, war and peace, family, crime and punishment). That was full course. Short course was Beliefs only not practices and 2 ethical areas. It was very interesting and I learned a lot.

I absolutely loved going through most of the RE material with my DD. it took big life issues - abortion/euthanasia/death etc and got students to firstly examine it through the eyes of a specific religion - I felt that this was also an appropriate way to handle these issues , (pretty much like you do at a Uni level with most work) - students are also able to add their own reflections into the argument, once they have build up an argument. they do not just have to parrot information.
I felt it was an excellent starting point for children to udnertand how theories work; how we test them and we can critique them. My Dd had such interesting points that she made around women and equality and where she disagreed with some religions.
This is not the GSCE I would be complaining about, and would highly recommend it for all children to do.

It is far more discursive than dogmatic

@ParentOfOne we look at Dawkins and Hitchens. We also use resources from the Humanist society

I'm am RE teacher and a staunch atheist by the way. Many of us are

@PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister it is a brilliant GCSE, it’s a brilliant A-level.

How is it a brilliant A-level? What subjects does it let you study at uni?

If we are talking about a generic understanding of religious and non-religious theories, sure, that's very interesting, if done well.

But the (IMHO flawed) English system forces students to specialise in 3-4 subjects at sixth form. The choice of A-level subjects determines the courses one can apply for at uni. What courses does a RS A-level give access to? Aren't there better options, which give access to more courses?

well you could, but you would get no marks because it doesn’t answer the question. It’s the academic subject of religion, not a long rant about your own personal beliefs

Well, now it's you who gets no marks for poor text comprehension! :)
I specifically talked about adding, in addition to (not instead of) answering the question on why, and what I said was not a personal opinion nor a rant, but the factual event that the Catholic Church has in the past stated that the HIV virus passes through the condom, which is scientifically false.

Going off on a tangent about the evils of the Catholic Church is a rant.
Pointing out that the Church has made statements which are factually and scientifically false is not.

Have a look at the syllabus, we were very skeptical before DSD picked her options, but after options evening DH and I both said we wished RS had been like that when we were at school.
DSD picked it and absolutely loved it as it's so varied and taught her a lot in terms of weighing up arguments from all points of views.
She is now doing it for A Level and hasn't regretted it for a second

That's a very good point.
In reality there will probably be little we can do about it, because it's not like we have an infinite number of good local schools to choose from, but it's a good point to be aware of.

You don't want to spend time in exams making points not relevant to the question. It means your time is being wasted.
(It may of course be relevant depending on the question.)
This us the same as for all subjects.

Dd3 explained why she felt certain religious views were outdated and backed it up with research she got an 8 in RE GCSE

It's less about what it allows you to study and more about how it teaches you to argue and debate skills you need for most studies.

At the CofE secondaries around here they tend to all take the GCSE in year 10. Even though they are CofE schools many pupils are of different or no religion. My (Athiest) DC took RE as one of there options and it was their favourite GCSE. They loved all the discussions in class.

It is compulsory to study until the end of year 11.
At my DCs school they took a GCSE at the end of year 10. For year 11 they gave the extra RE time to Maths and English, and covered enough to comply with the legal requirement in PSE.
Everyone got an extra GCSE, and practice in sitting a GCSE a year early.
It's a useful subject understanding at least 2 religions, and a lot of "moral issues" from at least those 2 view points. Understanding different belief systems is very valuable I believe. (And even Catholic/other religious schools have to study more than just their faith.)

This is what I teach

www.eduqas.co.uk/media/wpojjvm0/eduqas-gcse-rs-spec-full-from-2016-e-14-05-2020.pdf

If RS is compulsory to 16 then presumably so are history, geography, computing and all sciences?

I got kicked out of gcse RE for questioning if god existed

It's a national requirement to study some form of RE at GCSE level but not to take the exam. A lot of schools do-because it's a reasonably easy GCSE to get. The syllabus is interesting-more philosophy than Bible Studies. It actually led to my DD's First in Theology from Edinburgh!