Is 8 GCSE's enough for the average child?

[phoebemcpeepee]

And by average I DO NOT mean the usual mumsnet prep/super selective/super academics, I mean your typical state school kid who is quite lazy parents work FT so definitely no hot housing! Dc is still undecided about doing A levels let alone Uni and needs quite a push to do the basics but is perfectly bright and capable of getting 5/6's and possibly the odd 7 if he puts his mind to it.

His school don't have a vast choice of subjects and he ended up with only 1 option (food tech) on top of the school core 8 (English, 3 science, 1 humanities, Maths, 1 language + RE) so total 9.

It's a shame really as he hates RE, Chemistry and Physics and would have loved to have done a second language but little choice in the matter and school were very fixed on core subjects and I didn't push at at the time. However, it's clear he's struggling with the two sciences, physics in particular, and I wonder whether he'd be better off dropping it and hopefully free up some time to focus on the others.

Would 8 GCSE's be deemed acceptable if he does decide to go down the academic route of A levels/Uni? He won't be RG or top flight and may not even go as another thought is catering and gong abroad to expand and improve his French but doesn't want to close doors to higher ed just yet.

If RE is a full GCSE, that's 10 isn't it - English I assume is 1 x language and 1 x literature?

6 is enough to get into uni.
8 is more than enough.

8 GCSEs is enough for any child, not just the average child! Presumably he's doing two Englishes (Lang and Lit) though, so that would be 10 subjects? My ds is doing 10 and I think it's far too many; dd started with 10 and dropped to 9 in year 11.

At her highly academic school (92% of GCSE grades are 7 and above), they start with 10/11 but are allowed to drop them if they're struggling, so quite a few girls in her year ended up with only 7 or 8 in the end. This is a school where they expect them to go on to Oxbridge/RG, so they must know it makes no difference to uni entry how many GCSEs you have. I think a few top unis do look at GCSEs (but even then, they only look at 8) but generally they're irrelevant for university entrance.

Her school also allowed only 1 or 2 of the single sciences - she didn't take Physics - however, I'm not sure a state school would allow that? At ds' school, which is state, they either do the 3 separate sciences or the combined science option, which is 2 GCSEs but all 3 subjects, just less content.

I assume by 3 Sciences you mean 3 separate GCSEs in Chemistry, Physics and Biology. What a state school is more likely to do is put him in for the Foundation tier for Chemistry and Physics rather than completely dropping both subjects. You can mix tiers with the separate GCSEs.

At my DDs school they are doing 9, they don’t have a choice about how many. Would his school let him do 8?

Think all schools you have to cover all the sciences although at ours you can do combined for 2 gcse worth , is that an option?
But generally in state you don't get lots if choice after core subjects, although ours don't enforce a language so we had a little more choice
Ds1 now 17 did 10 gcse , but dropped re at last minute as was too much for him, and school suddenly gave them the option to a few months from exams so sat 9
Ds15 now year 11 school had dropped the re as compulsory and he has done 9 which seems plenty to me.
I never understand why we force so many on some kids as I think for some 5 or 6 good grades would be better than struggling with 8/9

The absolute minimum is usually 5 GCSEs, including maths and English but some universities/courses use GCSEs as part of the process to select candidates and there are some courses that require a minimum of 9 GCSEs but they tend to be things like medicine at an RG university. A level grades are more important than GCSEs.

8 GCSEs would be enough to study a modern language at an RG with the right grades. He really should have a look at courses that might interest him to see what the specific GCSE requirements are though -number, grades, subjects. It's also worth looking at the admissions statistics to see what GCSE grades successful applicants have as the minimum requirements might not be the same as what you need to get a place for competitive courses.

Won't he be doing 2 x English (language and literature) so he will have another one too?

Could he learn a language independently and take a certificate in it later?

Ah yes 2 x English so total 10 and wanting to drop to 9. I suspect the problem will be school not letting him drop what they consider core subject as they are quite traditional in that sense and no point in trying to drop RE as not an option but will look into the combined science for chemistry/physics. Thanks all

Combined science covers all three sciences, but in less depth than taking 3 individual GCSEs. You get 2 grades for the course. THe problem can be that if you are really not good at 1 (or 2) of the sciences, both grades will be brought down, so sometimes it can be better to stick with the separate ones and accept that one will be a much lower grade/fail.

Dropping to 9 shouldn't be an issue generally, but it's the foreign language option that is usually dropped 'for cause' (dyslexia, etc).

Dropping RE is the other option, actually, as you can withdraw him from it like you would withdraw a child from religious education. It can't be mandatory, even if they're making out like it is.

The three schools mine went to only offerred 9 GCSE's in total. One of them was a highly academic school with multiple Oxbridge offers every year.

Ds actually dropped down to 8 as he was struggling with a particular subject. Some schools only offer 8. I personally think offering 9 is better as it gives a bit of leeway for something to go wrong in one subject.

Ds2 goes to an academically selective school and has dropped down to 9 (no MFL) but we had to explain what he would do in the other period. For him this wasn't an issue since he has some additional educational needs so he sees the learning support teacher in the MFL slot, but other children haven't been allowed to drop a subject since there is nobody to supervise them.

Op as there have said, combined science is all three sciences, just at a lower level than triple, which is three separate GCSEs. Combined science is two GCSEs but you study all three.

The only way to drop an science subject is to take single sciences (ie triple) but not do all three. I've only ever heard of private schools allowing that - a friend's dd has GCSE biology and chemistry but nit physics.

I doubt a state school would allow this. Also what would he do in the spare lesson time? If he is weaker in some sciences, as others say he can do foundation level in those and higher in stronger ones.

In terms of your original question, yes eight GCSEs is fine, more and more schools are now only offering eight or nine now.

Sorry for typos. I also meant to say, the foundation option for some science assumes he is doing separate sciences (triple); if he does combined, he can do foundation still but then his highest possible science grade would be 5/5, as opposed to (say) biology 7, chemistry 6 and physics (done as foundation) 4. Personally I think that's a better outcome than 4/4 or 5/5 on combined.

I hope that makes sense!

Combined science isn’t a lower level than triple, you just study slightly fewer topics.

If you look at the requirements of most normal job advertisements, they tend to ask for five A-Cs including Maths and English. Your DS will be absolutely fine. My Dsis did not have enough GCSEs to go straight to university, but ended up doing an access course at college to get enough UCAS points. 9 GCSEs is plenty.

Ok, I mean you don't go into the subjects in such depth. Hence why triple is advised for those doing A level science. I'm not denigrating combined in any way. I personally would have liked to do it, as I had to choose two out of the three because of wanting to do other subjects; so my physics know,edge is poor tbh.