Two languages at GCSE

[zippygeorgebungle]

Hello DD at a good, standard northern comp. Good at languages, motivated and predicted 8s and 9s across the board so far. But choosing GCSE options and seems really really unusual to do two modern foreign languages at our school. Almost all do Spanish which they start in year seven but French is only started at year nine so quite late. She has done a term and a half.
Is doing two a really bad idea? School said it was fine and encouraged it but when I asked, only five out of 200+ in year had done two this year and I think they were bilingual at home in one of the two. Thanks for any thoughts.

Just a question as an aside for all you linguists as I’m thinking about secondaries for a dc atm and the one they like is amazing but doesn’t offer Latin.

They’re thinking of doing Latin in their own time in y8&9 because they’re really interested in it. They love languages- so do I - and I might do it with them in a two year extra curricular gcse course I found as I’ve always wanted to. Do you think thats mad (for them)? They don’t do a lot of extra curriculars so would have the time.

School offers French and Spanish and we have connections (getting looser with this generation ie not a trilingual house sadly) with both cultures so they may well do both. School only does 9 GCSEs.

If she's talented in languages then go for it. One of my DS's friends did Spanish from Y7, only picked up French in Y10 for GCSE and got 8s in both and she is now doing both at A Level, is intending to study languages at uni. No prior language knowledge, just very very motivated and capable.

@2026ontheway most children in the country do 8 or 9 GCSEs, no "only" about it. Those that do more are the exception.

Unfortunately Latin is very rare now. There isn't the funding for it.

I did three including Latin in the 80s and then picked up Italian GCSE alongside my A levels. But I didn't have to do three sciences like they do nowadays, in fact I didn't do any science O levels at all and have never felt the lack. The languages have all been useful.

My dd did French and German at GCSE, got a star in both and isn’t a native speaker of either. At a level it’s far harder if you aren’t a native speaker

I’m surprised with your ‘crikey’ and ‘unfair’ comments given all your language O’levels. It’s much easier learning another language after the first one. I started my 2nd language in year 9, 3rd in year 10 and another in 6th form. I’ll admit I passed the one in 6th form purely because I knew how language o’levels worked rather than knowing that particular language!

OP - if your DD would be happier doing a second language than another subject then let her go for it, she will get a better mark than doing something she enjoys less.

The only reason for not doing a second language would be if she is then not taking another subject which might be useful for whatever carer aspirations she has.

My Dd is doing French and Spanish GCSEs at school.

Her school allow students to pick up an intensive language in year 9, in addition to the one they’ve been studying in Y7 and y8.
The school told us around 10% of the pupils do this, and of those that do, at least half of them either swap to their “intensive” language for GCSE options or carry on with both, but pretty much all of them carry on studying at least one MFL at GCSE.

Across the school as a whole, about a quarter take at least one MFL for gcse.

So doing two is unusual overall, but fairly popular amongst the language lovers.
I imagine doing both history and geography is similarly more unusual even though vast numbers will be studying one or the other.

If the timetable allows you the flexibility to choose what you want, go for it!

My Dd is actually taking 3 MFL because she is doing one outside school too.

CAREER not carer, obviously

I did 3 languages at GCSE a hundred years ago (French, German and Latin). If you have the kind of brain that can memorise long vocabulary lists it's great to play to your strengths.

Lovely idea! I am biased as I studied Latin from what you'd now call year 8 through to degree level (and Greek from year 10). There are any number of online resources now which would be a big help. If they end up getting really into it there are summer schools which they could attend from age 16, I think. My daughter did that before going on to do a Classics degree and found it very helpful.

Even if your child loses interest after a bit, learning some Latin vocabulary will be very useful with English spelling and vocabulary. So many of our less basic words derive from Latin and Greek. And then there's Roman history, Latin literature, the incentive to move on to Greek literature, the mythology, the art and architecture - the benefits of studying the classics are enormous.

Both of mine did 2 languages at GCSE (at a school with a policy of having 5 genuine choices). Dual linguists were relatively common.

One went on to do A level, the other has learned a 3rd language to study abroad.

The only thing that would worry me is the relatively late start on the second language (my DC’s school started the second in Y8). I would ask specifically for results data for previous pupils taking the ‘late started’ language vs the ‘early started’ one, to see if there is a systematic difference.

If the school say it's fine I don't see a problem. Taking two languages at our school was unusual but only because the German teacher was terrible so almost noone did it for GCSE.

I did French from year 7 and can still remember a lot and communicate reasonably well. I did Russian in two years but can't remember anything except the alphabet - I think the late start (year 9) definitely didn't help there but it's also much harder grammar. Some friends of mine did Spanish as an extra alongside their A Levels.

I wish we started kids on languages earlier in the UK.

I did french and German it was a requirement at my school to do two, went on to IB French higher.

my kids’ school withdrew French this year as they couldn’t recruit the staff. So it’s Spanish or Spanish. I think doing two is reasonable.

Absolutely do both if she likes languages and the timetable allows for it. Are you worried it will be bad for her in some way to do more than one? At my school back in the Middle Ages two language GCSEs was standard and some of us did three. I did another language club on top of that.

I did French and German at GCSE, starting French in year 7 and German in year 9, and got an A and B respectively (this is before A* grades). I didn't carry either on to A Level, which is something I regret now, but I enjoyed learning them and it developed some useful skills.

The only caveat os if she is extremely able and on target for 9s in many subjects: the taking of GCSEs by native speakers makes it harder to get 9s in languages than in other subjects (because native speakers take up a proportion of the highest grades available).

It’s not impossible by any means, but if 9s are her target and she is very able across the board, there are subjects in which she is statistically more likely to get one.

Eh? Is this a recent issue? I got As in my three language GSCEs back when it was letters not numbers. I’m not a native speaker.

I did three modern languages (one in sixth form) plus Latin at O Level (yes, it was a long time ago). No native speakers in my family - I just enjoyed them. Went on to do French and German at A Level then an Economics degree. While I've never had a job that's relied on foreign languages, they've definitely given me the edge in a few interviews and I've used them on and off all my working life.

Our school did french from Y7 and then offered Spanish or German from Y9. The pace of learning was faster for the second language.
I took German for GCSE and then for AS level (in the days and AS was same standard as A level and took the same exam papers just without the literature element)
It was quite hard work but if motivated and good at language then this shouldn't be an issue.

There are two factors in play in language grading:

1. The most common languages are graded about half a GCSE grade ‘harder’ than English / Maths (which are used as a reference)

https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/05/grading-severity-at-key-stage-4-in-2024/

2. With the splitting of ‘A’, first into A/ A* and then into 7/8/9, the effect of native speakers at the very top end of grades has become more visible (remembering that the grades are norm-referenced not criterion-referenced so a relatively fixed proportion of those taking the exams each year will get each grade)

That said, Ofqual has been instructing exam boards to increase the % of the highest grades in French (from 5% pre-pandemic to c.8% today, though that is just from a Google search so may be inaccurate ) and that may be sufficient to cancel out the native speaker effect.

I did two (French and German - five years for French and four for German) over thirty years ago and still reasonably competent in both and very happy that I did them (I am still annoyed that I was talked out of Latin). I got As in both (back when that was the top grade that you could get) without any family background in either language. DD is taking three language GCSEs and loving them.

This article is relatively old but outlines the issue:

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/arts-blog/are-modern-foreign-languages-exams-too-difficult#:~:text=A%20key%20factor%20underlying%20excessive,of%20difficulty%20as%20an%20issue.

Ofqual has, as I said above, been trying to compensate for the issue. My DC did one common and one ‘rare’ language - the small number and higher proportion of native speakers taking the ‘rare’ language exacerbated the issue (the article talks about German, which is less rare but illustrates the concept), and as a result it was something the teachers were very up front with parents about.

My DD wanted to do French and German at options which you were not normally able to do as you are only meant to choose 1 the school let her as they new she would be able to cope with the work load.

I did French from year 7, Latin from year 8 and German from year 9. Not a problem. If you have a flair for languages, they are quite easy subjects to choose as they don't require a lot of revision (because you are using the grammar and much of the vocab all the time).

Not where we are, 10 or 11 is currently quite common in NI grammar schools. I think its too many to be fair!

I know not many schools do it, which is why I was asking if pp thought it was doable as an external over two or three years.