I’m one of those ‘GCSE’s are all bollocks anyway’ people. No one has ever asked to see my results. I also know many people who didn’t meet the requirements for their college courses, but still got accepted anyway, although I know you can’t rely on that.
I’m a bit academic so I didn’t struggle too badly, but I did get to the point I chose to prioritise subjects. I don’t know how many kids take these days but we had about 7/8 subjects worth of exams to take. If it’s the same for your son maybe try take some pressure off by saying look, essentially forget these subjects(not maths and English, but perhaps 2 he’s less good at?) - that he doesn’t ‘need’ the grades anyway. No idea if that makes sense, but mentally it helped me when trying to choose what I needed to revise and split my time!
I’m a bit academic so I didn’t struggle too badly, but I did get to the point I chose to prioritise subjects. I don’t know how many kids take these days but we had about 7/8 subjects worth of exams to take. If it’s the same for your son maybe try take some pressure off by saying look, essentially forget these subjects(not maths and English, but perhaps 2 he’s less good at?) - that he doesn’t ‘need’ the grades anyway. No idea if that makes sense, but mentally it helped me when trying to choose what I needed to revise and split my time!