GCSE options

Sorry to hijack the thread slightly but I also have a question regarding options. My sons school put each pupil on a pathway depending on their predicted grades and the options they can choose vary on each pathway,
They have been given there pathways today and my son has come home very upset, the pathway he has been put on gives him all the core subjects, a language and history or geography. He then has 2 free options. The problem he has is that he hates languages, is not very good at it but would I imagine get a pass at gcse but having only 2 free choices stops him doing a gcse in what he is passionate about. He has friends on a different pathway which don’t have to take a language and get 3 option choices which is what he also wants.
Does anybody know if the school can pick and choose which students have to take a language?
I will obviously speak to the school but the office is closed for today and wondered if anyone had any insights?
Thanks and sorry for the hijack

Universities will not assume anything from double science. Friend's DD did double science as that was the only way at her school that she could do the other options she wanted. Now in her last year at Cambridge doing a non science subject.

If it's going to make life more enjoyable and less stressful and not actually prevent her from doing any A levels she might choose, I would go for double.

I wouldn’t do triple unless you are very keen on it and good at it.
School should have something that explains exactly what’s involved in each subject, so you’ll know how much coursework is involved.

There was a lot of work involved in history and geography when I did them although that was many years ago.

Is she not doing a language?

My son did both History and Geography GCSE last year. He had 3 two hour exams for both subjects and the workload/revision was MASSIVE. My less bright Year 8 boy has just chosen his options and i suggested to him to only do one or the other not both of those subjects.

Sorry, thats not about Science, but relevant.

Many schools don't offer triple science so unis aren't going to worry about that.

Triple is a lot of work.

The step up to A level is huge and it may be a struggle from having only done double. If your DD loves biology and is prepared to work, she should be OK.

Agree the geography/history mix is a big workload just in its own.

(Opinion only based on reading boards)
No they wouldn't discount people with double science.
If she goes on to do biology A level and does well in that they will be looking at her A level grade, not nit-picking about which individual GCSEs she did or didn't do.

How much does she 'love' science? At our school double does 10 hours per fortnight, triple does 14 hours per fortnight which is a lot.
My DD2 is in y10 doing double. There is a lot of content in double (noticeably more than in the unreformed GCSEs).

Triple science, geography and history is one hell of a revision load for summer of year 11. I would think you need someone pretty academic and hard working to pull that off successfully.

Please don't push her into doing triple just because you think it 'looks better'. But if she is really thinking about science A levels she must like science so also think hard before not doing it.