GCSE Options Problem.... Choices Blocked!

[IJustWantAUserNameThatDoesntExistAlready]

Hi there, looking for advice from anyone who may be in a similar position with a bit more knowledge. My first post here, so apologies for any presentation errors...
My son is about to select GCSE options. He has the core, plus 3 optional.
Core is English Lang / Lit, Math, Combined Science and MFL (French). All good so far.
For his options, he needs to select one from each of the following blocks:
Block 1: Geography, History
Block 2: RE, Sociology
Block 3: Triple Science, Art, Geography (only if History chosen as Block 1), Computing... plus a bunch of vocational stuff.

Here's the problem. He's academic, and is determined (since he was 4) to make a career in the historical sciences (details don't matter). As a result, he wants to take Geography, History and Triple Science. All 3 would be very beneficial to him, and allow him to select the A-levels appropriate to progress into a degree in the appropriate area.
But because of the structure of the options, he can't. He has to drop one of these in favour of RE / Sociology, both of which are utterly useless to him (I'm not knocking them as subjects - I personally took RE to A-Level - but they're not suitable for his purposes).

Does anyone have any experience in how to approach the school to try and get this limitation changed? I'm quite happy to play softball or hardball with them to get the options he wants. Or does he just have to do a subject that is a waste of time for him, and get whichever of the preferred subjects we can't get through school privately (he already has private tutoring, I'm not bothered about the cost, but the additional schooling on top of what he already does might be too much?) If I say to the school "fine - force him to do a subject he doesn't want to do that will be a waste of time for all concerned, but don't be surprised if this straight-A student lands an F and brings down your school when he could get an A in his useful subject" - will this bounce back on him?

So frustrated that we're being blocked from GCSE options that he wants that could hinder him through the rest of his education!
Grateful for any advice...

I agree that a school insisting that every pupil takes RE or sociology as an option (different from compulsory RE which is often taken as a short course or half GCSE) is a bit ridiculous. Is that actually so tho? Or are those the only options @IJustWantAUserNameThatDoesntExistAlready is mentioning bc they are the only ones his ds will consider?

Everyonr having to take history or geog is believable bc of EBacc, but I’m not sure about that second block. Op has admitted missing out a lot of subjects. I’m less worried about his DS and more about the less academic, more creative DC who have to take two humanities and can only choose one creative. Plenty of dc want to do (for example) CS and PE or music and drama, or drama and art, or CS and DT. What about them?

All these people saying timetabling is an issue... That will be the case at any school. I have children at 2 different state secondaries (neither are selective) and neither were this restrictive on options! Both schools are 6 form entry so medium sized. In fact one of my DC's schools got children to choose their priority options first and then create blocks around it to cater for the most preferences (eg. If that particular year group had lots of people wanting to do triple science and geography they put them in different blocks). It is possible to do this.

It looks like that particular school has decided that it's compulsory to do either RE or sociology, for reasons other than timetabling. Even less chance of getting them to let him off in that case I think. Ours did the same but without the sociology option, they all had to do a full RE GCSE. But then their school was a bit nuts with 9/10 compulsory subjects and 4 options 😱

I agree it's a bit odd to offer sociology GCSE and not other subjects like economics, business studies, media studies, second MFL etc but maybe the OP left them out as irrelevant.

Strange that you can't do triple science with computing or DT or art, I bet those would be popular combos amongst aspiring computer scientists / engineers / architects.

@Hughs Or is the op didn’t mention art, DT or CS because the dc isn’t interested in them? Surely other dc are. So what else is in block 2?

He does mention art, DT and computing, they're all in block 3.

He also said in an earlier post that he'd heard a while ago that the school thought RE should be compulsory for ideological reasons.

@Hughs Apologies. Must have missed that. It’s odd to have those two subjects as either/or. I’d probably do sociology and triple science plus geography if it’s earth science type degrees that are of interest. Goodness knows if that’s possible!? I’m amazed parents are happy with this.

It does seem very old fashioned and restrictive when they only have three choices to insist on either geography or history and either RE or sociology. Maybe the lack of STEM teachers is a factor. Quite a few of DS's friends did A level combos like maths / FM / physics / CS or maths / FM / physics / DT and went on to do computer science or engineering. I'm not sure I'd fancy physics A level without doing triple science and that wipes out so many other options. Not to mention all those who want to do music and drama, DD had a few of those in her year. One of her friends did music and drama GCSEs and a BTech in performing arts which I thought was perhaps a bit OTT 😂

I reckon the OP's DS is actually quite lucky to get as close to his ideal picks as he is, given how odd these options blocks are.

@Hughs When my DDs were at school they had to choose a variety of GCSEs. So a MFL (DD1 did 2), an art (DD2 did 2), triple or combined science, usually geography or history, and RE was 1/2. I’d still be happy with that now as a parent because it allowed flexibility but offered a good general education from which to choose A levels.

You might be right about lack of science teachers but two humanities isn’t unusual but rarely necessary. History opens up lots of A levels. Geography is good with other science A levels these days. Not many dc need both.