Why do the amount of GCSE schools allow differ from so widely

[Grrrrrsnarl]

My ds has just chosen his options
The school is above average but on reading other posts on here they are not being offered the same amount of GCSE exams as others.

They take
english literature, language, maths, double science. Which are 5 GCSE (compulsory)

Then 1 gcse in humanities (out of mfl, history or geography) ,. 1 sport (either core pe, sport ocr. Or drama btec)

The 3 options which are a mixture of GCSE or btec courses

So a maximum of 9 GCSE are on offer + a btec drama / sport option

My son who is on course to achieve B grades is doing 8 GCSE and 1 btec and 1 core pe

Is this normal, posts on here are saying 11 GCSE ( my friends dd is doing 11)

Is the school going for quality over quantity? Can't work out why they are so different

My son does 9 or 10

2 or 3 science (this will be decided after y10 exams, majority do 3)
2 English
1 Maths
1 computing
1 music
1 design and Tech
1 Food tech

(Cue for MNers clasping pearls as he does no language or humanity )

Standard Comp

At my school...

Compulsory - English, Maths, Science, IT, RE, Citizenship, one MFL (French or Spanish, only compulsory to higher ability sets, optional for lower), one of History or Georgraphy (can do both as one can be an option)

Optional - Dance, Drama, Music, History/Georgraphy, PE, Art, Textiles, Tech, Design Tech, Motor Vehicles BTEC, Health and Social Care BTEC, Hair and Beauty BTEC, Business Studies BTEC, Food Technology, Triple Science (a harder science basically).

Also Media Studies GCSE was offered to certain students to study after-school in Year 9/Year 10. An early one.

I did English, Maths, Science IT, RE, Citizenship, Media Studies, French, History, Food Tech, and Health and Social Care Btec.

But the IT and Citizenship qualifications were certificates not full GCSEs

It’s odd to classify a MFL as a humanity.

My DD is doing:

English Language
English Literature
Mathematics
Biology
Chemistry
Physics

Computing
French
History
Religious Studies

So, 6 compulsory and 4 options.

my son's school only allows 9
they are an outstanding school and pride themselves on getting kids through exams with high marks
they say universities look at your best 8-there is no need to do 11
better 8/9 fab gcses than 11 mediocre ones

Dd is taking 11, but the course is over three years not two. Some children take fewer though.

Its 9 if doing double science or ten if triple in dc's school. I'd be fine with 9. She is doing ebacc but Sociology as an extra so 10

It sounds like a lot of ‘soft’ subjects.

What about the academic dcs who want to do sciences/ languages/ humanities?

My dd does
English Lit
English Lang
Maths
Double Science
Psychology
History
Geography
German
BTEC PE
= 10

Her brother last year (same school) did
English Lit
English Lang
Stats
Maths
Media Studies
RE Short Course (half a GCSE)
German
Geography
Triple Science
Computer Science
BTEC PE
= 12.5

I think a lot of schools are responding to the harder GCSEs by dropping the number taken. In my opinion 10 is plenty so I don't think that my dd is losing out because her brother has 12.5

SS grammar-doing 10. They also have to do PE (not examined) and careers and enterprise education (not examined). Their rationale is that university entry requirements are 8 GCSEs, even for Oxbridge, so it means that this way they're doing more than enough but not spreading things too thin so that they can excel in their chosen subjects.

I guess they want fewer but better results. Have no idea how this compares to other schools.

My son's school, only compulsory are Maths, English and 2 sciences. Everything else is optional. Total of 10 GCSEs inc Eng Lan/Lit, so 5 compulsory and 5 optional. No compulsory foreign language nor humanity.

Thinking that 8 GCSEs is a floor because “Oxbridge” only looks at the top 8 is short-changing young people out of a broad and balance curriculum. This is exacerbated by the fashion to end KS3 in Year 8, and only doing 3 A-levels.

They might get slightly better grades by studying 8 (of which 2 are English) but at what cost?

9 GCSEs is pretty standard since the introduction of the new 9-1 GCSEs.

If students are doing more, this is sometimes because additional work is being covered within the same timetable slot:
Triple science in the same number of lessons as other students study double science
Further Maths certificate in addition to regular Maths GCSE in the usual Maths lessons.

So DS2 is taking 11 GCSEs (if you include the Further Maths certificate).
DS3 (same school but less able) will take 9.

But it's not just Oxbridge that look at 8. It's Progress 8 and the bloody EBacc, which is removing my subject from countless schools across the country, leaving our youngsters with no hope of doing anything creative.

For the record, our school now offers:
Maths, English Language, English Literature, RE, Biology, Chemistry & Physics with one MFL and either History or Geography as compulsory subjects. PE and PSHE are also on the curriculum but not examined. Students then get 2 further choices so could take 2 MFL or History & Geography if they prefer.

I think it is quite sad that potentially children could end up only studying three subjects that aren't English, maths or science once they get to fourteen (or younger as some schools are starting gcse courses at year nine)

It used to be the case that gcses were broad enough that what you actually chose wasn't that important, in that it wouldn't have an impact on your future options. I wonder if that will still be the case several years down the line if eight becomes standard.

We did:
Double science (no triple then)
English lit
English language
Maths

1 x humanity (history, geography, re)
1 x mfl (French or German)
1 x technology (resistant material, graphics, food tech, textiles)

And two choices, either another mfl or humanity, or business studies, sociology, ict, art, drama, music, pe

With compulsory pshe, re and pe if not studying at gcse - no exams though.

Interesting
Our school went on and on about the mfl ebacc and sold it as a MUST to get into uni, when no universities actually require a GCSE mfl ( even states this on the Russell group home page)

However as above our school does the 6 GCSE

En Lang
En lit
Maths
Double science
Humanities

Leaving 3 option blocks

The 3 option blocks are a mixture of GCSE and btecs,. So a kid could take 5 GCSE and 3 btechs

At no time did the school talk about progress 8 and unis wanting 8 GCSE!

Local comp does maximum of 8 ( mostly double science, occasional student does 3). So 2X English, maths,2x science, RE then a choice of art, drama, French, DT etc.

Ds' superselective offers 11 as standard with some doing maths a year early and then picking up another (usually further maths or economics).
They all do 2x English, 3x science, maths, mfl ( French, German or Spanish) and a humanity as well as RS.
Leaving 3 to choose out of a 2nd humanity, 2nd language (incl Latin), art, drama, economics etc

Maths a year early is just stupid.

what gets me is that some schools get kids taking gcses early so they can clock up more when universities want 8 subjects TAKEN AT THE SAME TIME. they want proof you can handle a big workload.

Why crafty ? They all got 9s last year

Dd2 state school
English x2
Maths
Double science
RS
Spanish
Drama
Classical civilisation

They do take 11 together in year 11, but some of them already have maths !

It was a while ago now, but we took 11 GCSE's as standard at school.

Mainly adds up because we were at a catholic school so RE was compulsory plus an additional humanity.

Private grammar. Everyone does 10 or 11 (top set maths does extra maths GCSE).

Compulsary

2 English
3 Science
maths
language (French/German/Spanish)

then 3 others from
Art, DT, History, Geography, Economics, Music, Latin, Ancient History, Drama, Greek.

Eng lang, eng lit, maths, double or triple science as the basics

With a choice of four optional

So 8 basic or 9 if they take triple science

Two or three years ago statistics was linked to triple science which meant that anyone taking triple ended up with 10. Which i found infuriating as my ds1 couldn't take statistics as an extra and end up with 9 qualifications