GCSE options due today help!

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DS is struggling at school. He enjoys it at the moment thankfully but he is in bottom sets where applicable and we can see from homework and assessments he is not really keeping up.
School is thankfully a good one and are being helpful. I suspect dyslexia but we don’t know that yet so it’s possible that may not be the cause.

What I am struggling with right now is navigating GCSE options without making him feel discouraged and in any way lesser than his peers.
He can choose 4 or 3 with some ‘ blocks’ ruling out some combinations .
If he chooses 3 this is to enable him to take one fewer GCSE and do extra maths and English support. This is the route school are recommending and we support that in principle.

He has decided he doesn’t want to do this and wants to do as his friends are - with French, PE, food tech, and DT as his choices.

If he goes with his choices I am sure we can later drop one and pick up the extra support then.

my worries are -

1. if School are offering the support route are we mad to turn it down
2. the support route might turn him off school as he ends up doing multiple maths and English lessons additional to his peers - will this be a slog? If he ends up diagnosed with some SEN, dyslexia does a more varied teaching style work better than just more of the same at school ( we could afford to tutor if needed)
3. Do the more practical subjects and provide light relief or a coursework slog?
4. Is French mad if he struggles with English- he loves the teacher at the moment and enjoys speaking up in class with her .
5. maybe minor but what impact does it have if we over rule his choices - he is pretty determined and got very upset last night when we discussed it all.
6. he is seemingly better at Geography than French but can’t do that alongside the other choices - are either one easier for someone who will possibly struggle with longer questions ? ( older DC is doing it and it’s pretty demanding !)
7. am I overthinking- does any of it really matter if our primary focus is to keep him happy at school and engaged with learning ?

one final point this is harder as he is young to be doing options - young for year , and doing options in year 8 he cannot imagine what year 11 will feel like yet .

Thanks for reading my long download and appreciate any insights and experiences .

Id totally keep his choices if it keeps him engaged.
Who cares if he drops 1 later or fails some. Just let him know you're ok with him not getting amazing scores as long as he paces himself, tries, stays sensible about it all and enjoys it

It's true at my DC's school that students who require extra English support don't study a language in KS3. I very much doubt that they are the only school in the country to find that MFL timetable slots are "easy" to use when you need to find extra slots for support sessions.

Some of the students requiring extra support will be those who have recently moved to the UK and for whom English is a second language.

May not be true at your school, but some other subject's timetabled slots instead will have been used for English support.

Firstly, get it in writing that he can opt into the extra support and drop French at a later date! The last thing you'd want is for him to have his choice to do this removed because the school has put another child in that slot and it stops being an option. I know you've said the teacher has said, but get that in an email so you can refer back to it.

If you feel really strongly that he needs extra support, do him a deal along the lines of 'you can take your four choices, but you need extra support, so you'll also have a tutor after school one night a week if you don't want the school extra support'. To be honest, this 1:1 will probably be more effective than small group work in school anyway, especially if they're able to adapt to his learning style. Alternatively, if you feel it's best, you could do a deal with him about keeping his grades at a certain level to be allowed to continue as is, and if they fall below that then he takes the additional support the school is offering. I'd recommend the tutor approach if he needs to more than this, but I know some kids for whom that would work well.
I'd also recommend checking that all his options are GCSEs - lots of school will offer some BTECs to students who struggle academically, and he may well be better off with less exams at the end. Once you've established that, find out which exam boards they're using, and help him to find syllabuses online (print them off if possible), and check he's interested in what he'll actually be learning about - for some exam boards there's a huge difference in topics, so that might help him in terms of his choices. Also get stuff like a study area, filing system for notes for each subject, and a study system set up early to help him - stuff like summarising each bullet point on the syllabus on a notecards, once it's been covered in class is a little and often approach, that means he's got a set of notes to start revising from, and serves as a recap too, and shouldn't take more than ten minutes! He may need more adult support with study skills, so aim to put that into place from the point he starts GCSE work, not the point where he needs to start revising!

So a few points here as a secondary school teacher:

In terms of being with friends, even if he picks the same options, he may not be in classes with his close friends. I appreciate he doesn't want to feel like the odd one out but he may end up in different groups for some options and different sets, friendships may also change after picking options.

You have said you assume he can drop french and switch to the support group but that may not be possible if that group fills up or eg new students join the school. As a previous poster said, I would ensure you get this in writing or it may not be an option later on?

Do the school guarantee everyone their first choice options? I do wonder if the French class could end up being "full" and your son pushed down the support route anyway.

Is he at risk of not getting 4s in English and maths? This will seriously limit his choices post 16 - and options for students in this group are currently reducing. Personally I would do everything I could to get him over that hurdle.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl
When you say options for the group of students not getting 4s in English and maths are reducing, what do you mean?

As a teaching assistant who works in a college doing support for post 18 students, I'd say take the 3 with the English and Maths support. I know that might be very very tough for him now, but later on he'll need the English and Maths far more than he'll need anything else, unless he goes into a very specific career. I have students with aspirations across the spectrum of careers - nursing, midwifery, TA or teaching, hospitality, to name a few, who can't move forward with their studies because they are missing maths or English or both. Most things he'll want to do, he can work round other missing GCSEs.

Let him do the subjects he wants. It’s good to have subjects he can succeed in. Most schools will let them drop an option if it becomes obvious they need to focus on English and Math.

This could be the last chance he has to take those subjects - all of which open career doors