The executive headteacher and her colleagues from St George's were credited with have driven rapid improvement at The Charles Dickens School,[7] but against expectations, the GCSE result were again poor.

Pupils who pass the test go to the Grammar school and Charles Dickens takes pupils who have not or who choose a more broad education with the option of vocational study in the Performing Arts, Arts, Engineering and Food Technology as an option.

Every student follows the most appropriate learning pathway that meets their needs in KS5 and in the future and reflects their prior attainment and progress to date.

The learning pathway should provide sufficient pace and challenge to learning and reflect the student's individual interest, talents and academic ability, naturally the final programme of study chosen needs to be broad, balanced, relevant and enjoyable.

[12] To achieve an EBacc, students must gain a GSCE grade 9-5 in six subjects, a modern foreign language- in this case Spanish, the core subjects of Maths, English Language, two science, one of which may be computing and then history or geography which are referred to as a humanity.

[12] The main pathway studies a core of mathematics, English Language and Literature, combined Science (two GCSEs), and one subject from Geography or History.