10 GCSEs - the norm?

[ImStillMe]

DDs school expect 10 GCSEs to be taken (including 3 separate sciences).

Is this the norm now, and is 10 expected by RG universities? I took 8 in my day...

DD is predicted 7-9 in all her subjects but has a health issue which means I think 10 is a lot.

What is the process if you don't think your child can sit all 10? Her invisible illness means she presents as well but as her parent I see her fatigue etc...

At my DCs (Private) school they do 9

It’s the norm to do at least ten.

20 years ago when I did mine at an itterly rubbish school I was still expected to do ten GCSEs (incl dual science).

Round here some schools do 12 GCSEs.

If you don’t think she can cope, speak to the school.

Overall, I think the absolute max was 13, with Additional Maths and 2x further MFL offered after school. I think only 1 pupil in Dd’s year did all 4 language GCSEs that were possible, and they have gone on to Oxbridge to do MFL.

What I do find very odd is every school I look at makes English literature compulsory at GCSE but history is optional. Many also make religion compulsory but won’t allow children to study both Geography and History.

Why on earth is reading fiction more important than learning actual facts about how our societies came to be?!

This most private schools drop them down to increase their pass rate

Well they are very sensible then, as they are increasing their students pass rate, not the schools.

Numbers taken before the gcse reforms are irrelevant.

DDs comp the standard was 9.5, with 10.5 for those doing triple sciences.

I did O levels and the max was 8, which I did - I honestly don't think anyone at my (reasonable comprehensive) did more than that

About 8 is the norm in England. 10 is absoutely not the norm.

This page has the stats since 2018 -
www.gov.uk/government/publications/infographic-gcse-results-2021/infographics-for-gcses-2021-accesible

In the last few years at least, it has never reached 9, let alone 10

@justanotherdaduser But the mean is skewed by the pupils with sen who take 6 or fewer. More take 9 than take any other number.

So we have mean = 7.85
Median = 8 (just, 42% take 9 or more)
Mode = 9

There is quite a long tail at the lower end of 0-7 compared with a much shorter tail at the upper end of 11+

I agree that 10 is not the norm, but I would argue starting with 9 is more likely the norm than 8.

@TeenDivided , yes good point. Didn't think of the long left tail. 9 is more realistic.

My dd did 8 (Combined Science and her school doesn't offer an extra maths qualification like Further Maths) and had offers from RG unis

The DCs school does 9
English Language
English Literature
Mathematics
MFL (lower sets don't do a MFL and spend more time on English)
Double Science
then 3 choices (one of which can be triple science).

I was at school in Scotland and we did 7 O grades so 9 seems more than enough.

The school I attended was 13, but it's dropped to 11 now.

Yep, was the Norm when I did them back in 2007

The important question from the school's point of view is what the students would do with the free periods. In the independent school I used to teach at, students could drop down to 6 or 7 if they were really struggling (norm was 8 or 9) but this meant they needed a lot of supervised study - the school had sufficient rooms and staff for this. State schools might not. You can't have 14-16 year olds roaming the place!

The DC’s (grammar) school does 10, or 11 if you take Further Maths.
As DS2 got a 3 in his Spanish mock I’ve told him not to revisit at all for this subject, so realistically he’ll be taking 9 this year.

Can you ask school to withdraw him from the exam?
If sat, the grade will have to go on UCAS application.

9 is/was the standard number at my DC's school. One now at uni, one doing A Levels so it seems to be a perfectly adequate number.
In fact their school works on the principle that 9 good GCSEs is better than 10 or 11 with a couple of weak results.

Thanks, I didn’t think of that!
I will phone them next week.

They may well say no as they may think with a bit of effort he could get a 4 or 5 on the foundation paper (he is at a grammar school after all, unless there is e.g. dyslexia).
They may say he has to keep attending the lessons even if not entered due to supervision requirements.

TeenDivided Yes, he is doing the foundation paper so can only get a max grade of 4 or 5.

9 is the norm at our very academic state school. Quite a lot do triple sci to make 10, and some do extra maths and English instead so they get 8. We have had no encouragment at all towards 10, and they are very supportive of DC choosing double sci. 8 GCSEs is the norm at 2 other good state schools in our town.

There should be flex for students who have particular needs. Lack of double sci is a shame, it's such an obvious way to take the pressure off a bit. They may agree for her to drop one or two subjects but there needs to be a plan for "what they do with her" in those periods. Some schools may push back on her just going to the library to do HW, for example, and insist she needs to be in a lesson. But others may be fine with it. My feeling is there should be a solution that makes it possible. We have it with an EHCP but without that, it might help to involve the SENCo.

This is progress 8 at work. English is 'double weighted' but only if the child takes both language and literature.

RE is a compulsory subject.

Only 1 of history or geography is counted in progress 8.

What happened 22 years ago isn't really relevant compared to today's GCSEs which are less coursework based and more content heavy.