Religious Studies GCSE
Edexcel 5RS01
Year 10
• Pupils started the course in year 9 and will
continue through until the end of year 10
• Pupils will be assessed by two, 1 ½ hour exams
in June.
• Exams now take into consideration spelling,
punctuation and grammar.
Religion and Society Topics
• Religion: Rights and Responsibilities
– How Christians make moral decisions using the Bible, Church Teachings and
their conscience. Genetic Engineering, what it is and the Christian arguments
for and against
• Religion: Environmental and Medical Ethics
– Global warming, pollution, Christian and Muslim stewardship, infertility
treatments, religious views on the treatments, transplant surgery, religious
views on transplant surgery.
• Religion: Peace and Conflict
– Issues of war and peace including the work of the United Nations, Pacifism,
why wars occur, just war theory. Issues around bullying, issues around conflict
and reconciliation
• Religion: Crime and Punishment
– The need for law and justice, including types of punishment especially Capital
Punishment , why justice is important to Christians and Muslims. Issues
around drugs and alcohol including Christian and Muslim beliefs.
Religion and Life Topics
• The exam is split into 4 sections made up of the following topics:
– Believing in God
• Arguments for and against the existence of God including religious upbringing,
religious experience, design and causation argument, the big bang theory,
unanswered prayer and evil and suffering.
– Matters of Life and Death
• Issues relating to life and death including why Christians and Muslims believe
in life after death, the morality of abortion and euthanasia and media
coverage of religious views on these topics.
– Marriage and the family
• Religious views on aspects of family life including sex outside of marriage,
importance of family life, divorce, contraception and homosexuality.
– Religion and Community Cohesion
• Issues concerning community cohesion in Britain including equal rights for
women, multi ethnic and multi-faith society, government and religious actions
to promote community cohesion.
Skills required for the exam
• Defining key words
• Justifying own beliefs
• Explaining views of Christianity and Islam on
topics studied
• Evaluating a statement stating own opinion
and recognising why people would disagree
with their opinion.
Challenges
• Pupils complete all of their exams at the end
of the course (for us, the end of year 10).
– This means pupils have to retain 2 years worth of
information for the exams.
– Pupils need to remember which topic is for which
exam paper.
Response
• A joint text book has been made available.
• Teachers will set homework essays on both
papers through-out the year.
• Additional lunchtime/after school revision
sessions will be in place.
• Additional revision may be offered at other
times e.g. Easter Holidays, May Half term.
Ideas to help
• Pupils need to have the opportunity to discuss the
issues studied and hear a number of different views- it
may work for some good dinner time debates!
• Pupils need to watch the news, many of the topics are
issues spoken about on the news e.g. locking in
syndrome man requesting euthanasia back in July.
• Pupils need to complete past paper questions for both
units
• Pupils need to be completing own revision for both
units
Past Papers
www.edexcel.com
Past Papers
Final Grade
• Each paper is marked out
of 84
• This score out of 200 is
graded as follows
• The mark is then
converted to a UMS mark
out of 100
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•
•
•
•
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• The two marks are added
together to give a score
out of 200
180- A*
160- A
140- B
120- C
100- D
80- E
60-F
40- G