How many GCSE's do they take these days?

[Mymumstillreadsmymail]

We have started looking at secondary schools (State and Independant) for sep 16 start.

I have asked this question at a few schools now and not got an answer. For the average child, how many gcse's do they take? I am also interested to know which generally are the compulsory/recommended subjects, and how many are options.

Obviously lots of the schools offer lots of exciting subjects that my dc are interested in, but how many of these will they really do by the time you take compulsory subjects out of the equation.

If any I could shed some light on this I'd be grateful!