How many gcse's do year 10 study?

[bellarations]

Our school is forcing all pupils to drop one subject from their options, how many do most schools take? Can they do this? They are an recently converted academy.

Relevant discussion

I sort of thought that about 30% of pupils got < 5 passes including English+Maths. Few of these will go on to be feckless useless members of society. They'll find other productive paths.

My Yr10 dd has to do:
2 English, Maths, 2 Science, a MFL, RE, and the all do an "equivalent" in IT
plus
3 options (one of which could be 3rd Science, or 2nd MFL, or a myriad of other subjects)

So 11

She is in an ordinary state comp, all be it in the top sets - I'm not sure at what point dc do fewer, that's just the way it was presented to us.

Both dd & ds will do 9 or 10. One is at a vocational dance school, the other will be going to an academically selective private school.

DS1 did 9 ('outstanding' state comp). He took double science but (maybe unusually) has found the jump to A-level science was OK.

DS2 is doing 12 (different, 'good' state comp). At his school, top sets take triple science and double maths, plus he has a twilight subject in there, hence the extras.