How many GCSE’s?

[36and3]

Dd is in year 10 and is doing eleven subjects, including further maths but is finding it too much. Wondering about dropping one. That would leave nine GCSES and FM. Is that still sufficient?

It all depends on the child and what they want to do. For a medic, I would do 9 plus FM and do extra volunteering instead (volunteering in an old people home or SEND school and St John’s ambulance type thing) and would be very focussed on nailing the triple science and a 9 in the standard maths. Our schools put most kids into FM GCSE or even AdMaths which is even harder but some don’t end up taking the exam, just doing the extra work in Year 11 so the transition to A level Maths and or FM is easier.

I understand that sentiment, @CurlewKate, but not sure if I agree. Driven by competitive universities' demand for a curated suite of perfect grades at GCSE and A levels, schools fixated on performance are responding by reducing subjects taken but also by raising expectations of perfection or near perfection. I am not sure that is any better. More GSCEs means more likelihood of a more varied and imperfect grade profile (which I think is healthy) but also the opportunity, for those who can cope, to gain exposure to a wider range of subjects and the experience and resulting confidence of being able to get through it all. Should most take 9 or more GCSEs? No, but should more of those who could do so? Possibly.

Even if they have no say in the matter?!

Schools know what some parents like.

The most common number of GCSE's to take is 9. Some schools only offer 8 and some students take 10.

The average number is 7 but that figure is skewed by those who didn't take any GCSE's or who took very few perhaps because of SEN.

7 GCSE's - 15.6%
8 GCSES's - 25.1%
9 GCSE's - 28.4%
10 GCSE's - 12.2%
11 GCSE's 1.7%

I’m not sure what you mean by that.

Ours is a non selective state, Welsh medium comprehensive. The catchment area is the whole county and it caters for a huge range of children and their parents.

DD is doing GCSEs this year and insisted on doing 12 (the 12th is an AdMaths qualification, it is more than a GCSE so won’t count in the statistics, only top set do it). She is doing 3 MML because she wants to travel and she does not want to necessarily be stuck in the UK (I cannot argue with that one).
She is doing A levels in Maths Physics and Chemistry (FM tbc). So the MML was “pointless” yet she is conversational in all 3 now and has been watching Netflix and Disneyplus in French, Spanish and German for a while. Whilst it won’t help her with UK unis it may certainly help her if she wants to go elsewhere. The school insisted she does a GCSE in Music because she will get a 9 without even having to try. She had to go to all sorts of meetings to get the school to timetable her 3 MMLs.

I said all along do 9, it is pointless doing more. She wouldn’t listen. I do not really care what results she gets. I also have no idea why she wants to do STEM when she is good at MML and English and Music. But I am leaving it to her. It is her life.

DD did 14 GCSEs.

And schools.

And then did fsmq as well. So 14 GCSEs and FMSQ in addition

Why?

Over how many years, and why?

Yep. Schools know what parents want.

Just the way the school was. DD did really well in all of them.

One in year 9. (French). Two in year 10. Rest were all in year 11

DD's school kept GCSEs to years 10 and 11 only. They wouldn't have been able to fit 14 subjects into the curriculum.

Do you count science as 3 papers? DD does combined. I think she just told me she would have 2 GCSE in.science making a total of 8 this year & 2 taken last year as they take MFL in year 10 (only 1 was compulsory then)

Combined science gets 2 GCSE passes.

DD (Y13) and DS (Y9) go to a grammar school.

DD did 11 GCSEs which was Maths, FM, 3x Sciences, 2x English, RE and 3 options.

They have changed the format now and DS will do 12 GCSEs - Maths, FM, 3x Sciences, 2x English, RE and 4 options (students are encouraged to take a language and history/geography as 2 of the options for the EBacc)

I think this is a bit full-on, tbh, but it's the route the school want to take. Not everyone is entered for FM or 3x sciences (a few students do the combined papers), so there will be some students who do 11 or 10 GCSEs, but 10 will be the minimum.

Thanks for clarifying so that will make it 10, usually students have 9 in her school, but if you are bilingual they do encourage that you take the extra GCSE in the other language.

My now 18yr old dropped English Lit. He was predicted A/B but the workload in memorising so much for that one was really stressful for him. You only need English Lang so we told school he wasn't doing it and if they entered him for the exam he just wouldn't show up, which would impact on their stats. They let him drop it funnily enough! He did 8 and is off to uni in September

What year was this? It used to be quite common to do this pre 2018 until the reformed GCSES's came in. 2018 itself, the first year of the new exams caught some schools out and by 2020 (the cancelled year) many schools had dropped down to 9/10. Post covid some started to drop down to 8.

She was in year 11 in 2017

I think it's quite sad if a school makes a child take MFL in Year 10 as, unless they continue to teach the language it means that anyone wanting to go onto A level is out of practice.