Dropping GCSE Spanish to focus on other subjects

[Kago2790]

My son is starting year 11 tomorrow.

He is bilingual (Asian language) and did a GCSE in it a few months ago which the school hosted the exam (got Grade 9).

He does Spanish, doesn't particularly enjoy it, will probably get a grade 5 or something. His other subjects are 6s and 7s probably.

Not broached the topic with school but wondering is it reasonable to drop Spanish since he already has a GCSE language and use the time to hopefully improve his other scores. I was thinking he could go and revise/do homework in library during lesson time and it would obviously free him up in terms of less revision so he could really focus on other subjects.

Thoughts on this? I suspect the school would be reluctant.

Who is going to supervise him in the library?

If the only reason is he doesn’t like it then it is very unlikely school will agree.

schools generally don’t like children being unsupervised during lesson time either. Many schools will use the library for lessons.

At my dd's school, the librarian is generally happy to monitor all students there as sometimes kids are there to catch up on tests and things like that.

As an ex secondary school language teacher, this will probably not be allowed. If they say yes to him, it opens the floodgates to others joining in. He is predicted a pass so I feel he would be better off digging deep and getting on with it. Other students will start coming out of the woodwork, wanting to drop history or whatever. I get your point of view but he'll need supervising wherever he is.

We only ever allowed a student to drop for severe mental health reasons, long illness etc. Not simply because they could no longer be bothered. Please support him to do his best. If he is bilingual he will already have an advantage over other students.

As a secondary MFL teacher myself, it wouldn’t be allowed at my school either I’m afraid, for all the reasons already mentioned. It’s extremely rare a student is allowed to drop any subject and would only happen in extreme circumstances.

We don't have a librarian and we wouldn't allow it for all the reasons stated here

He has an aptitude for language, why not encourage him to practice Spanish properly, and get a decent score? Since he has shown that he can apply himself. Why are you encouraging him to limit himself?

My DD did this. It was hugely helpful. It also
meant her exam timetable wasn’t so packed.

You really have to ask the school

Oh my, nothing to do with the here and now, but if he can add Spanish to an Asian language, he will be well placed for broad future career options, or even to just go backpacking!

Thanks for the replies, on balance we will probably not contact the school then and just carry on with Spanish.