AQA GCSE Religious Studies Themes 2025 Question Paper

Download the official AQA GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course) Section 5 Themes question paper for the June 2025 examination series (8061/5). This authentic examiner-set PDF contains the complete Themes section of the GCSE Religious Studies assessment sat on Wednesday 21 May 2025 and covers contemporary ethical, social, and philosophical issues explored through religious and non-religious perspectives.

The paper includes two major thematic units: Theme A – Relationships and Families and Theme B – Religion, Peace and Conflict. Students are required to explain religious beliefs, apply teachings from sacred writings, analyse ethical issues, and evaluate contrasting viewpoints using reasoned arguments and justified conclusions.

Theme A: Relationships and Families covers gender discrimination, polygamy, same-sex relationships, the nature of the family, sexual relationships before marriage, and contrasting religious beliefs in contemporary British society. Students are expected to compare the main religious tradition of Great Britain with one or more other religious traditions while analysing changing attitudes to relationships, marriage, sexuality, and family structures.

Theme B: Religion, Peace and Conflict examines reconciliation, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, peace-making, justice, pacifism, retaliation, and the concept of holy war. Students evaluate religious teachings about conflict resolution, violence, forgiveness, and war while discussing moral and ethical issues from religious and non-religious perspectives.

Question types include multiple-choice questions, short-answer responses, explanation questions requiring reference to religious teachings or sacred writings, and extended 12-mark evaluative essays. The paper includes two major evaluation tasks exploring whether religious believers should wait until marriage before starting sexual relationships and whether war should ever be described as holy.

This June 2025 Themes question paper is ideal for students preparing for the 2026 AQA GCSE Religious Studies examinations, particularly learners developing ethical reasoning, evaluative writing skills, comparative religious analysis, and exam technique under timed conditions. Teachers, tutors, homeschool educators, revision providers, and intervention programmes can use the paper for mock examinations, classroom assessment, retrieval practice, essay-planning exercises, and examiner-style revision using authentic AQA formatting and mark allocations.

The paper contains 16 pages and follows the official AQA 8061 specification for GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course). It provides realistic exam practice for thematic studies using official command words, structured response formats, and extended evaluative writing tasks. Fully optimised for desktop and mobile revision with instant PDF access.

This document is designed for Year 10 and Year 11 students studying AQA GCSE Religious Studies (Short Course), especially learners preparing for thematic studies in the 2026 examination series. It is particularly valuable for students improving understanding of ethical issues, religious teachings, comparative beliefs, evaluative writing, and structured argument development under realistic exam conditions.

It is also highly useful for GCSE Religious Studies teachers, private tutors, revision centres, homeschool educators, intervention programmes, and schools delivering the AQA Religious Studies specification. Teachers can use the paper for timed mock exams, retrieval practice, examiner-style assessment, essay-planning activities, and classroom revision using official June 2025 exam-standard questions.