Berkshire confuses a lot of parents. It's not a fully selective county like Kent or Buckinghamshire, but it does have grammar schools, and the ones it has are among the most competitive in the country. If you live in Reading, Wokingham, Newbury, Bracknell or Slough, you need to understand one thing before anything else: Berkshire has two entirely separate selective systems. They use different tests, different deadlines, and different rules. Getting them mixed up is how parents lose a year.
The two selective systems in Berkshire
There are six state grammar schools in Berkshire, split across two areas. Reading has two: Reading School for boys and Kendrick School for girls. Both are super-selective and both draw children from well beyond the town itself. Slough has four: Langley Grammar, Herschel Grammar, Upton Court Grammar, and St Bernard's Catholic Grammar. These four run admissions jointly through what's called the Slough Consortium.
If you live in Reading or Wokingham and you want your child to try for grammar school, you're probably looking at Reading School or Kendrick. If you live in Slough or the east of the county, you're looking at the Consortium. And if you're ambitious, you can have your child sit both. They test on different days, the scores aren't shared, and plenty of families enter their child for both. Just be clear that it's two separate registrations, two separate tests, and two separate preparation tracks.
Reading School and Kendrick: super-selective and not distance-based
Reading School and Kendrick use a joint entrance test administered through a single registration process. It's run by GL Assessment and covers English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. The test is sat in mid-September of Year 6.
What makes both schools different from most grammars is that they are super-selective. They don't operate a catchment area in the normal sense. Instead, they rank all children who pass the qualifying threshold by score and offer places to the highest scorers first. A child in Didcot who scores in the top 100 will get an offer ahead of a neighbour of the school who scores in the middle of the pass range. Distance is only a tiebreaker.
The practical effect is that a simple pass doesn't secure a place. You need a strong pass. The qualifying mark tends to sit around the 111 standardised score, but actual offers typically go to children scoring in the mid-120s and above. The numbers shift year to year. The schools don't publish specific cut-offs, but historical admissions data from Reading School and Kendrick gives you a realistic picture. Parents often assume that passing is the goal. It isn't. Scoring high is the goal.
Registration for Reading School and Kendrick runs through the admissions pages on each school's website. The deadline is usually early July at the end of Year 5. Miss it and there's no late route. Set a reminder in June.
The Slough Consortium: four schools, one test
The four Slough grammar schools run a joint test through the Slough Consortium. The test is written by GL Assessment and covers English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, in a similar format to other GL areas. It's sat in early autumn of Year 6.
Registration happens through the Consortium's own website, typically opening in May and closing in late June. You register once, and a pass applies to all four schools. From there, admission to each specific school depends on its own oversubscription criteria, which differ. Langley and Herschel use distance. Upton Court has its own priority areas. St Bernard's Catholic Grammar prioritises Catholic applicants and requires a supplementary information form from a parish priest.
The pass threshold for the Slough Consortium tends to sit around the 111 standardised mark, similar to other GL areas. But competition varies by school. Langley is the most sought after in the group, and places there go to children who live close. A pass plus geography is what gets you in.
For families in Slough, the Consortium is the main event. For families further out (Windsor, Maidenhead, even west London), the Consortium is still accessible, but you're competing from distance. Without an address inside a priority area, your pass needs to buy you a place at whichever school still has room after the local children are allocated.
What about the rest of Berkshire?
Wokingham, Newbury, Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire are non-selective at the state level. There are no grammar schools in these areas. Children in those districts can of course register for Reading School, Kendrick, or the Slough Consortium, and plenty do. Reading School in particular attracts a steady stream of out-of-area applicants each year.
If your child doesn't live in Reading or Slough, the question to ask yourself is honest: is your child strong enough academically to compete for a super-selective place, and are you prepared for the logistics of a longer school run if they get in? Both schools are well served by train and bus links, but a daily commute from, say, Thatcham to Reading town centre is a real commitment for an eleven-year-old.
How to prepare for the Berkshire 11+
Both the Reading and the Slough tests are GL Assessment in format, which is good news. GL is the most thoroughly documented exam type in the country, and practice materials are easy to find. CGP, Bond, and Schofield & Sims all publish strong practice paper sets that closely match the real thing.
For the Reading schools, where the goal is a high score rather than just a pass, preparation needs to go deeper than basic familiarity. Children aiming for Reading School or Kendrick benefit from genuinely stretching maths and English work, not just drilling past papers. Verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning are the most coachable elements. Children can improve significantly on these with consistent practice from Year 5. English and maths, being curriculum-based, are harder to game. A child who reads widely and does strong problem-solving maths from Year 4 onwards has a real advantage.
For the Slough Consortium, the preparation is similar in content but the scoring bar is lower in relative terms. A solid all-round pass is enough, providing you're close enough to one of the four schools to get a place. Time management in the reasoning sections is where most Slough candidates lose marks. Do timed practice from Easter of Year 5, not just the final weeks.
The biggest mistake I see parents make in Berkshire is picking up generic 11+ books that aren't aimed at GL format, or worse, practising with CEM-style materials that went out of date when CEM stopped running tests in 2022. Make sure any book or course you buy is explicitly GL Assessment.
Is a tutor necessary?
In Reading, tutoring is nearly universal among successful candidates. That doesn't mean a child can't get in without one, but that's the honest picture of the competition. Parents who can coach maths and English themselves, and who use good practice materials consistently, can absolutely get a child ready. Parents who are time-poor often find a tutor from Year 5 onwards makes the home routine easier to maintain.
In Slough, tutoring is common but less universal. A bright child with structured home practice can prepare well without one. The question to ask is whether your child is self-motivated enough to work through practice papers without a weekly external deadline. Most ten-year-olds aren't, which is half the reason tutoring works. Not because the tutor teaches anything magical, but because it imposes structure.
FAQ
Can my child sit both the Reading and Slough 11+ tests?
Yes. The tests are on different days and run by different admissions bodies, so there's no clash. Plenty of families put their child forward for both, especially if they live somewhere between Reading and Slough. You register twice, pay any applicable fees twice, and the scores stay separate.
We live in Wokingham. Is it worth applying to Reading School or Kendrick?
If your child is academically strong, yes. Both schools are super-selective and not distance-based, so your postcode doesn't work against you in the way it would at a catchment-based grammar. The honest question is whether your child can realistically score in the top 20 percent of candidates. A free benchmark test is a useful reality check before committing to prep.
My child is going into Year 5 — are we behind?
No. Starting in Year 5 is normal and gives you a full 12 to 18 months. Children who start in Year 4 aren't guaranteed an advantage, and some burn out before the test arrives. Steady, structured work from January of Year 5 is the pattern that tends to produce the best outcomes.
What happens if my child doesn't pass?
They continue with their state primary application like any other child, and they're considered for non-selective secondary schools in the normal way. In Wokingham and West Berkshire, non-selective secondaries include some strong comprehensives with good outcomes. A grammar school pass is an option, not a requirement, and plenty of children do well without one.
If you want to find out where your child actually stands before you commit to preparation, readyfor11.co.uk gives you a free benchmark test across reasoning, English, and maths. No account needed, no paywall. It's a more useful starting point than guessing. It takes about 20 minutes.