Picking/dropping GCSEs

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Dd is in Y8 and has been told they need to decide soon which subjects to drop. We have a quandary as she is predicted 7-9 for everything bar music, which she will drop. So far the list she wants to take (and *compulsory) is as follows:
*Maths
*Eng Lit
*Eng Lang
*Theology
Computer Science
French
Latin
Chemistry
Biology
Physics (school don't appear to do a triple science but do a double award)
History
Geography (2 humanities but she loves both and gets similar grades)
DT
Art
Drama

She currently wants to do a confusing mix of medicine, engineering and design. Amazing at computer science, maths, science but also very creative and picks up languages easily. We would ideally drop Theology but the school won't allow it from what we have been told by other parents. I personally think dropping Art and Drama and keeping them in some form of hobby/co-curricular capacity is the best way forward, but then she still has 13 subjects. She doesn't want to drop Latin as it is one of her highest scoring but enjoys French as we use it on holidays and is already dropping Spanish so feels she has dropped a language already.

Anyone have any advice?

For medicine at uni, she will need a strong score in both biology and chemistry at GCSE. You absolutely can do well in bio/chem at A-Level with 'double' rather than 'triple' science but speaking with teacher knowledge, those who do well at 'triple' obviously find it easier than those who do double. Third A-Level option can be whatever (psychology is a popular one but we have had someone have art as their third and get in).

Art and D&T have a huge amount of coursework. Your daughter really needs to decide whether she could keep up with that. Computer science just had a horrid series of exams in the summer - you also need to consider how likely it is the school will retain that CS for her GCSE years as replacing them is hard. I know someone else has said you don't need Geo/History at GCSE to do at A-Level but if your daughter wants either for A-Level, picking at GCSE would make her life easier

Honestly it sounds like you need information from the school. Ours was very clear on how the process works, how many subjects tgey could choose, whether there's double award or individual science etc. If you don't have any of that information yet it can't possibly be that you are near the point of having to make decisions.

FYI ours only offered individual and compulsory 3 sciences/Eng/Maths and then three options plus one language. Nobody can do more than 10 (at our school).

Great to have more information, thank you all. I think we need to get more information, particularly on timetabling and options going forwards. It is very hard to even start thinking about A Levels at the moment. She has always said medicine but has toyed with Architecture too (does CAD). Her school is strong with CS grades (one of the reasons we moved her) so I don't think there is any fear of them dropping it. I was thinking combining medicine and CS, perhaps robotic arms or medical informatics might be a good way forward but obviously that's me linking things I think would be interesting rather than letting her see what she is interested in! I think for now we just know Music, Drama, Spanish and possibly Art can go and we will have to wait for further direction from the school to narrow it down.

Nope, all wrong.

You can definitely do A-Levels with Double Award Science which is a combination of the three subjects of Bio/Chem/Physics, and counts as two GCSEs.

Also the whole thing about Paper 1 and 2 is wrong too - Double and Triple sit both papers in every subject, but the Triple exam is longer by about 15 minutes per paper.

@AIstolemylunch literally everything you have said is incorrect.

Not all schools offer triple science therefore it can not be an entry requirement to Sixth Form. Although I suppose individual schools with a Sixth Form attached that did offer triple could stipulate this but not a stand alone sixth form taking from a large number of feeder schools.

Double award has a paper one and two for each subject so six papers altogether.

Latin being highest scoring is not a reason they keep it. If she is predicted 9s and 8s then keeping a subject because it’s high scoring becomes irrelevant

She actually asked if she could keep just Latin as a language last night, on that note. I don't think she has an interest in languages at A' Level and CS and Medicine don't seem to care about languages other than coding? Would dropping French and keeping Latin be a very strange idea, or in some way damaging?

I could imagine a background in Latin might be helpful for medicine?
(Or would that be Greek?)

I think that would be fine.

I think Latin instead of an MFL is fine and probably easier and will potentially be slightly helpful with medicine. The school will want an MFL for their Ebacc but if they don’t fight it and that’s it was she does, the universities won’t care and will only be interested in grades beyond English, maths and science.

It would be unusual but not strange really. We tried to do this for DD but the school wouldn’t let her so she is doing both (instead of triple science) and on for a 9 in Latin and a 7 in German.

@RunningAndSinging I may be wrong, but I think Latin may count as a language for EBacc purposes.

Thank you! Well, that's an option to consider then! That would get us down to 10 if we do double award Science and just DT as the creative option.

Right, I'll wait for more from the school now and come back if I need more help. Huge thanks everyone!

She would need to chose between medicine and architecture before making A level choices. Chemistry, Biology and ideally maths but anything for the third subject for medicine in which case it would be advisable to do the single sciences for GCSE. Maths or Physics, Art and an essay subject A levels for architecture.

So dropping art or doing double award science now would have an impact. (Although you can do science a levels with dual award science but it would be harder both catching up and talking some schools into letting you).

@RunningAndSinging it’s a private school - they won’t care in the slightest about Ebacc!