Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Two languages at GCSE

79 replies

zippygeorgebungle · 02/02/2026 19:40

Hello DD at a good, standard northern comp. Good at languages, motivated and predicted 8s and 9s across the board so far. But choosing GCSE options and seems really really unusual to do two modern foreign languages at our school. Almost all do Spanish which they start in year seven but French is only started at year nine so quite late. She has done a term and a half.
Is doing two a really bad idea? School said it was fine and encouraged it but when I asked, only five out of 200+ in year had done two this year and I think they were bilingual at home in one of the two. Thanks for any thoughts.

OP posts:
VacayDreamer · 02/02/2026 20:44

I did French and German, and at my dd school they only take one language in Y7-9 - either French or Spanish - but school let them take both or switch at y10 options. They have a “catch up” flight path for the kids who do this and whilst most kids just stick with the language they have been doing for 3 years, it’s not common to trade and plenty take both.
if school says it’s fine, then it’s fine

FuzzyWolf · 02/02/2026 20:42

If she has a flair for languages and enjoys learning them, then doing both is fine - unless she is looking for a particular career path where other subjects make more sense (which is possibly why the number of pupils doing two languages is low).

yellowbelliedlilylivered · 02/02/2026 20:40

As a languages teacher who did 3 at A level, I would say go for it. I loved it, enjoyed them a lot, and ultimately if you think languages is something you might pursue then the more the merrier. Each one makes it easier to learn the others, and most careers specifically requiring languages will request at least 2. Quite common at my school as we have good results, and a lot go on to study 2 at A level.

Gothamcity · 02/02/2026 20:37

I did French and Spanish at GCSE and it was fine, I got an A in Spanish and a B in French. Sometimes it was a bit of a drag going straight from one to the other, and occasionally I'd slip into Spain ish during a French lesson and vice versa! I attempted both at A level, and that was extremely difficult as when 50% of the subjects you're then doing are language related, it becomes such a high concentration of your day and very intense. I would find myself confusing the "rules" of each language, and subsequently ended up dropping French in the first year. If your DD picks up languages as a foreign subject easily, and is keen to do both, I don't see an issue. My only gripe with it was, I couldn't do geography or history if doing both languages, and I would have liked to continue with one of those too, and would have probably been more beneficial than the two languages in hindsight. I cannot remember ANY French now, but Spanish stuck with me, and can still read it almost fluently, and make basic conversation when abroad so it has been useful.