Background - when DS was 6, we moved abroad for work for 2 years (Austria).
DS attended a local school and after initially struggling a lot, managed to get quite good at German.
We moved back to the Uk when DS was 9.
DS has been attending German classes outside school, at his request, since he was 9, he's now 13. He's worked extremely hard at this and is very motivated.
His secondary school unfortunately doesn't teach German, but his German teacher (who is attached to a different school) has suggested he could sit German GCSE there as an external candidate. She thinks DS could realistically aim for a grade 8 or 9 at GCSE, and sit it in year 10 (he'll be year 9 is September).
Are there downsides to sitting it in year 10?
I thought people might just assume DS is a native speaker and not realise all the hard work he's put in.
A friend also told me GCSEs done earlier or later "don't count", so he might not be able to do it for A level at 6th form?
DS will do 9 GCSEs at school in year 11, with at least one other modern language, possibly even two. I thought doing a 10th subject earlier would be good experience, a bit of a practice run, rather than 10 all at once.
Are any teachers able to advise on what the best course of action is? DS has worked massively hard to get to this point, and we don't want to make the wrong decision for him.