How many gcse is the norm at your dc school?

Don’t know about minimum but at our secondary they encourage 9, with mfl done in year 9 so only actually 8 in years 10 and 11

I do feel more able kids should be allowed to do more, 8 feels pretty limiting

some options can be replaced with other qualifications

I did 12 in the 90s

8 or 9 at son's school
9 or 10 at daughter's

5 but my ds went to a specialist SEN school.

What benefit is 8 or 9 GCSEs?

9 plus an extra thing like a Silver Art Award or Business Studies or some Math (which isn’t a GCSE at the school). But the minimum was 8, max 10, which was usually their native foreign which they took in Y10. Some also took Further Math GCSE as an extra.

9 but also did stats a year early, which will be the norm for the school from now on. So 10 overall if not doing separate sciences

5 is very low and really limits choices for post year 11.

One of my ds did 12 , the other did 11- I think it’s more common in Welsh medium schools where they do Welsh Lit and Lang on top of the English Lit and Lang, and Maths is 2 separate results (maths and numeracy), then there’s 2 or 3 sciences and our school allowed 3 additional options. Top set maths also took additional maths.

Wow five is very few. Which five? That’s worrying unless for lower ability. So narrow.

My DCs’ school did nine, 10 if taking triple. The commonest two numbers in England now are nine and eight, between them IIRC approx 60% of candidates. Schools local to me now seem to offer eight or sometimes nine with triple.

ETA Five is just compulsories - maths Eng x 2, science x2. No options at all!

Eldest school did 8 on average. Some did more, some less.

5 outside of a special school is low

Maths, english, english lit and double science i am guessing?

Lots of level 3 courses require a minium of 5 gcses grade 4 or 5 to tackle them so this would give access to the next step. But others will have specific subjects requirements.

DS1 did 11, he got 8&9’s plus one 6

ds2 is doing 8, he is capable of similar marks to his brother, but has ADHD and dyslexia. It’s harder for him to get the information out of his head and onto the paper, he and the school think this it the right balance for him.

As a default, 10-11 GCSEs at our school (11 if doing triple science), though RE or Citizenship (all pupils have do select one of those) is taken in Y10, so it's 9-10 GCSEs in Y11

Most students do 9. Combined science, English Language, English Literature and Maths are compulsory with 4 free options.

Some students do 10, as able mathematicians may be entered for Further Maths and able linguists can take an extra language or Latin. I don’t think they can do both of these extras though due to time.

Yes, that will make some difference, but if you look at the numbers doing 11, and even 10 at one sitting there would need to be an awful lot of pupils doing one or more exams early to make 12 anything other than unusual.

8 is most common and includes some level 2 BTEC which are GCSE equivalent.

Some kids do triple rather than combined science, further maths or speak a language at home which bumps up the number.

9 for double science, 10 for triple science. Some children with special needs don't do MFL so the time can be used for interventions so they might only do 8 GCSEs.

I think those who do 12 often do one like Statistics or RE (or their native language?) in Yr10, so it won't show in those stats.

Five seems very restrictive: English, plus double science and maths takes up four.
my DD’s school was nine minimum.

12 is also very unusual, despite what you read on here! I'm always surprised by how many posters say their child's school offers this number as in 2024 only 390 children in the whole of England sat 12 or more GCSEs - out of 667340 entrants. Large numbers were of course much commoner prior to the latest changes to the curriculum, and further back when GCSEs were modular I know of schools that did even more. But these days it's rare, and as you say, unnecessary.

8 minimum and 10 maximum

9-11 at my DD's.

I did 10, 30 years ago.

Here's the data for England for 2024. I can't find 2025 so maybe it isn't published yet but I doubt it will be massively different. You'll see that the average number has been fairly constant at around 7.8 for a good number of years but it's not a smooth bell curve - over half of all pupils take 8 or 9. 9 is the commonest number. 5 is definitely low, and in my opinion, too few unless there is a specific reason. I would say that would significantly limit future options.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infographic-gcse-results-2024/infographics-for-gcse-results-2024-accessible

11. 9 for those not academic. Could be 12 or more with ad math or an extra language.

This is experience with two selective London private day schools.

8 is the standard (but can include BTECs etc as well). If struggling they drop to 7. Top set science have the option of Triple in the same time slot as the normal Combined. A few are invited to do an extra subject after school in collaboration with local Private School.

5 barely covers Maths English and Science. Surely even the lowest achievers would benefit from something on top of that they can do well? (Such as vocational Construction, catering, sport etc?)

Minimum 9. 12 for the higher sets.

Yes it does seem low. My dc did 11.

8/9 as standard. 12 is ridiculous and completely unnecessary. 7 or less as standard is very poor. And strange.