Reading 11+ tutors and grammar-school prep

Two schools, two separate processes

Reading has two state grammar schools: Reading School for boys and Kendrick School for girls. They do not form a consortium and there is no shared Reading 11+ test. Each is its own admissions authority, each runs its own entrance assessment with a different test provider, and the tests are on different dates with different registration windows. A family targeting both registers twice and prepares for two unrelated formats.

This is worth stating plainly because material describing a single shared Reading test is out of date. The Slough Consortium, which previously had arrangements under which some schools accepted a common test, now states that Kendrick and Reading School use different testing procedures and that no 11+ scores are shared between them.

Reading School (boys)

Reading School is a selective boys' academy taking 138 day places and 12 weekly boarding places each year.

The test provider is FSCE, not GL

Reading School uses the Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd (FSCE) test. Its own guidance puts it plainly: "As part of this commitment, we have adopted the Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd (FSCE) Test as our Year 7 Entrance Test." This is not a GL or CEM-style reasoning paper. The school describes the test as assessing application of knowledge and skills from KS2 subjects taught up to and including the Year 5 programme of study, and the subjects tested may include art and design, computing, design and technology, English, geography, history, languages, maths, music, PE and science. The test also assesses creativity, which the school defines as thinking of new and imaginative ideas or solving problems in original ways.

There is no verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning component of the kind found on GL papers.

Format

The familiarisation guide sets out four papers, each with its own question booklet and separate answer sheet, and notes they "might be sat in any order":

• Adventure Paper: any of the listed subjects, multiple-choice answers

• Beacon Paper: any of the listed subjects, short written answers

• Compass Paper: any of the listed subjects, multiple-choice answers

• Discovery Paper: a creative response

Instructions are delivered by audio: the guide states that "the instructions before, during and after all parts of the test will be given to you via a voice recording." Per-paper timings are not published in advance. The time allowed for each section is one of the things the recording announces on the day, so any timing you find quoted online is not from the school.

All papers except the creativity task are computer-marked and age-standardised. Candidates who reach an eligible score on the computer-marked elements then have their creativity task assessed, and are ranked on that basis. A child may sit the test only once, and all written elements are taken on one day at Reading School.

Eligible score

The school states that the eligible score varies year to year, so comparisons with previous years are not meaningful, and that a candidate must be of the standard in each element. A high score in one area does not offset a weak one in another. No fixed pass mark is published.

Dates for September 2027 entry

Registration ran from 27 March 2026 to midnight on 17 May 2026 and is closed. The evidence deadline for pupil premium, service premium, SEN and EHCP was 31 May 2026. The sporting aptitude assessment was on 12 July 2026, the SEN test date 15 July 2026, and the main testing date for day and boarding applicants 16 July 2026. Day applicants outside catchment are tested on 25 September 2026. Results are online in mid-October 2026, ahead of the Common Application Form deadline of 31 October 2026. Offers come from the local authority on 1 March 2027.

The July test date is the point families most often miss. Reading School's timeline runs months earlier than most secondary admissions.

Oversubscription

Reading School applies six categories in order: priority places (looked-after children, pupil and service premium, social and welfare need, children of school staff), sporting aptitude, Reading feeder schools, Reading priority postcodes, catchment area, then all other eligible candidates. There is no faith criterion and no sibling criterion, though twins and other multiple births have a tie-break provision within the catchment and open categories.

The school's website says it names 75 primary schools in the feeder category, while the determined policy for 2027 entry lists 76 in its appendix. Check the appendix itself for your own school rather than relying on the count. There are 13 priority Reading postcodes. Ten per cent of places each year are reserved for boys who show both academic ability and sporting aptitude, assessed on a separate test day.

Kendrick School (girls)

Kendrick uses GL Assessment. Its provider is genuinely different from Reading School's, which is the single most important thing to get right when planning preparation.

Format

Two tests, each of approximately one hour, with a short break between them. They assess English, mathematics, non-verbal reasoning and verbal reasoning. The school states there is no creative writing element to the admission tests. Raw scores are age-standardised and ranking is determined by the aggregate of the age-standardised scores of both papers. GL familiarisation material is available via the school's website.

Dates for September 2027 entry

The application form opened on 1 May 2026 and closed at midnight on 1 July 2026. Late applications are not accepted. The test is on Friday 18 September 2026, in morning and afternoon sessions that candidates cannot choose; the school confirms session times and arrangements by 17 July 2026.

Designated area

Kendrick operates a designated area split into Priority Area 1 and Priority Area 2, defined by postcode. The school puts the position bluntly: "We strongly advise parents who live outside of the designated area NOT to register their child to sit our test - no candidate, whatever the score they attain, who lives outside of our designated area has been offered a place at Kendrick School since the introduction of the designated area in 2013." Candidates outside the designated area sit the test on a later date. Home address is assessed as at 31 August 2026, and the family must still be living there when the pupil starts in September 2027.

Lower qualifying score for some candidates

Kendrick applies a qualifying score 5 points lower for candidates in the first two oversubscription categories, covering pupil premium, service premium, and children in care or previously in care. This sits in the admissions policy and is not something a family opts into. Separately, the school runs a Widening Horizons familiarisation programme for the same group, providing free preparation material. Taking part in the programme is not what earns the lower score.

How preparation differs between the two

Because the providers differ, preparation does not transfer.

For Kendrick, the work is recognisable GL preparation: verbal and non-verbal reasoning question types, which primary school does not teach, alongside English and maths at KS2 level, with standardised scoring rewarding accuracy across both papers.

For Reading School, the demand is breadth across the KS2 curriculum plus a creative response, and the school is explicit that no specialist tutoring is required. FSCE's own familiarisation guide states: "There are NO past papers and NO practice papers that have been authorised by FSCE." Reading School confirms it from its side: "there are no commercially available practice test papers for the FSCE Ltd tests." Test format and content change from year to year. Any product sold as an FSCE past paper is not authorised. The familiarisation guide is the only sanctioned preparation material, and the school notes it is not definitive, so the presence of a question type in the guide does not guarantee it appears in the test.

Choosing a Reading 11+ tutor

Ask which of the two schools a tutor has actually prepared candidates for, and for which recent cycle. A tutor experienced with Kendrick's GL papers is not thereby experienced with the FSCE test, and the reverse holds too.

Location deserves an early conversation. Kendrick's designated area is decisive rather than a tie-breaker, and Reading School's oversubscription categories weight feeder schools, priority postcodes and catchment heavily. A tutor who will give a candid view on whether a family's address supports an application is more useful than one who will not.