You should get a choice of what subjects you want to do (Science/English/Maths mandatory) but the rest, you should get a choice.
For the first 3 years you do every subject possible (well at mount carmel we did anyway
) then in year 10 when you start gcse's you got to choose two to carry on out of music/geography/history/ict/drama/art perhaps there were more I can't remember.
Anyways, I took Geography and ICT.. Okay I got an A in ICT but I didnt really *learn* anything, because in my circumstance I already knew things I just had to produce a load of coursework and pass the exam. I took geography as the lesser of the evils, I didn't like the subject and only managed a C because I didn't care about it one bit.
RE/French/(Electronics/Design tech) were madatory, and I don't personaly class them as important providing you don't plan to do anything where they could be needed. I didn't find French/RE interesting at all, and hence I spent 5 years 'learning' and managed to get hardly anything out of it (French: D, RE: E). I was predicted A's, but I simply didn't find the subject interesting so never had any passion to do well, and hence it really was a waste of time, I could have spent all that lesson time learning some form of advanced science, or getting an A in maths rather than B, so then i'd be better prepared for my Alevel maths.
I'm hopeless at English of course (as you will have noticed) but at least I found it interesting and managed to get a B out of it even though im shocking at structuring an essay/spelling/punctuation, I managed to get a B because I worked hard on my coursework and ensured I knew the books/poems inside out when I went in to the exam.
Anyways, thats my opinion, people should get more choice so they don't have to learn subjects that might not be of any use to them in future..