As the GCSE exams approach, the pressure of expectation looms large for the three Gifted girls. In Port Talbot, Anne Marie is more settled after moving in with her best friend, but isolation from her family and nerves about her exams are starting to trouble her. Would-be paediatricianJada has her heart set on taking her A-levels at grammar school, but she needs high grades to get in, and at home in Handsworth, her family’s cramped living conditions are still far from ideal. After her teenage rebellion and school exclusion last year, Tamworth-based Shakira has got to make up lost ground if she is to achieve the high grades in creative subjects that her teachers have predicted.