GCSE Religious Studies - Teaching from 2025

The GCSE Religious Studies qualification will support the Curriculum for Wales by:

• Supporting the statements of what matters, giving learners the opportunity to:
  • gain a deeper understanding of the concepts underpinning humanities, and their application in local, national and global contexts
  • understand human experiences better
  • learn how various worldviews and factors can influence their own and others’ perceptions and interpretations
  • develop an appreciation of how contexts influence the constructions of narratives and representations
  • develop an understanding of the complex, pluralistic and diverse nature of societies
  • appreciate the interplay between a range of factors, including religious and non-religious beliefs and worldviews
  • develop a common understanding of the ethnic diversity, identities, experiences and perspectives of their local area, Wales and the wider world
  • explore and develop a tolerant and empathetic understanding of the varied beliefs, values, traditions and ethics that underpin and shape human society.

• Supporting the principles of progression by encouraging learners to:
  • ask increasingly sophisticated enquiry questions
  • engage with an increasing breadth and depth of knowledge and underlying concepts
  • make supported judgements in more complex contexts
  • build an increasingly clear and coherent understanding of the world around them
  • move on to more focused awareness of the lives of others, in their own social context and elsewhere in the world
  • use evidence to construct and support an answer, and relating that to representation and interpretation of enquiry results.

The construct of GCSE Religious Studies qualification is based on the Welsh Government subject specific considerations for Religious Studies.  The qualification will:

• provide opportunities to understand religious and non-religious beliefs, teachings, practices, philosophical convictions, values and experiences from a local, national and international perspective  
• provide opportunities to seek answers to ultimate philosophical questions, such as the purpose and meaning of life
• provide opportunities to explore the foundations of religious and non-religious viewpoints and the influence of religious and non-religious philosophical convictions on our pluralistic and diverse society over time 
• equip learners with the skills to explore philosophical and moral issues, reflect on their own beliefs and values, and the beliefs and values of others
• provide opportunities to develop empathy, creativity, curiosity, resilience, tolerance, a sense of cynefin and human experiences within the natural world.

The GCSE Religious Studies qualification will also be based on the following broad underlying concepts, several of which run across units with different levels of breadth and depth:

• Beliefs
• Community
• Cynefin
• Philosophical convictions
• Practices
• Teachings
• Values
• Worldviews
• Ultimate questions
• Good and evil
• Ethics
• Human rights
• Life after death
• Stewardship
• Religious/non-religious views
• Diversity
• Identity and belonging
• Faith in action
• Pluralism