In addition, all students are taught Chinese and the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. They also learn about Chinese culture, and their history and society. The curriculum of ESF secondary schools is based on the IB Middle Years Programme between Year 7 to 9. At Years 10 to 11, students follow a curriculum designed by the school, that leads to IGCSE and GCSE qualifications, with the exception of Discovery College and Renaissance college which follow the MYP. At Years 12 and 13, students can either take the IB Diploma programme, or an applied learning pathway such as BTEC or the IB Career-related programme. Students study a range of subjects such as English, mathematics, science, the humanities, creative and performing arts, design technology and an additional language at an appropriate level. The ESF has received one of its best mean IB Diploma scores amongst its 969 students graduating in the class of 2017 in its history, at a 36 out of a possible 45. Fifteen of these students received a perfect score of 45, which fewer than 0.01% of IB Diploma students receive. There were 218 perfect scorers in 2017 worldwide. In 2019, 23 students from ESF received the maximum score of 45 points, out of 259 students worldwide. In that year, 97% of students obtained the full IB Diploma, and the mean score was 35.6. In 2019, 78 Year 13 students completed an applied learning pathway. For the BTEC Level 3 subsidiary diploma, 66% of entries were awarded with a distinction and above and 91% a merit or above. For the BTEC Level 3 Diploma, 73% were awarded a double distinction, and 90% a double merit or above. In May of 2019, 1,000 students completed the IGCSE/GCSE programme. For exams using the A*-G system, 27% of students obtained A* and 95% obtained A*-C, and for exams using the 9-1 system, 47% of students obtained a grade 9 or 8, and 95% obtained grades from 9 to 4. This was the eleventh consecutive year that more than half of students attained either an A or an A* grade. For Discovery College and Renaissance College which take the IB Middle Years programme, the mean grade per subject was 5.6 points, higher than the worldwide average of 4.5 points. The mean number of total points per student was 50.6 points out of a maximum possible score of 63 points. Between 2014 and 2018, the most popular university destinations were the UK (42%), Hong Kong (22%), the USA (15%), Canada (10%) and Australia (6%).