Slough and Berkshire Grammar Schools Explained

For September 2027 entry, the Slough Consortium, Kendrick School, Reading School and Buckinghamshire tests have already taken place. Slough Consortium results have been available in its parent portal since 4pm on 15 October 2026, as St Bernard's 2027 admissions page confirms. Check each school's admissions criteria and submit the separate secondary school application to your home council. Slough Council gives its residents 31 October 2026 and confirms 1 March 2027 as offer day. Families living in another council area must follow that council's deadline.

For a child in Year 5 now, the next cycle is generally 2028 entry. The systems have different test registration forms, dates, providers and geographic rules. The 2027-entry dates below show how the routes differed last cycle; check each school's 2028-entry information before registering.

This guide compares the test routes, then the separate place application. If you are still working out which selective areas may be within reach of your address, start with our guide to finding grammar schools near you and check each school's current policy.

April of Year 5: work out how many systems you are entering

For the next cycle, note each target school's test, registration window and eligibility rules. Do this early enough to request any access arrangements the school requires.

The starting point is the count, because it is widely got wrong. There are four grammar schools in Slough, and all four use the same Slough Consortium test:

• Herschel Grammar School, mixed, Slough
• Langley Grammar School, mixed, Langley
• St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School, mixed, the only faith school in the group
• Upton Court Grammar School, mixed, Upton

Khalsa Secondary Academy and Al-Madani Girls' School are not members of the four-school Slough grammar consortium. Check the consortium's current school list before registering.

Beyond the four, Kendrick School in Reading (girls) and Reading School (boys, with a small weekly boarding intake) have separate admissions tests. Buckinghamshire's grammar schools use the Secondary Transfer Test. Buckinghamshire Council says children at schools outside the county, including its partner schools, must be registered for the test; children at its state-funded primary schools are registered automatically.

Late April to May: the deadline order that costs families places

For the dates shown below, separate test dates from registration deadlines. These are 2027-entry examples, not the timetable for 2028.

For September 2027 entry, the sittings ran like this:

1. Reading School, split across Sunday 12 July (sporting aptitude), Wednesday 15 July (SEN), Thursday 16 July (day and boarding applicants) and Friday 25 September for day applicants living outside the catchment area
2. Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test, 8 and 10 September 2026
3. Kendrick School, Friday 18 September 2026
4. Slough Consortium, Saturday 19 September 2026

A child could physically sit all of them. Now look at when you had to register:

• Reading School closed at midnight on Sunday 17 May 2026
• Buckinghamshire closed at 3pm on Tuesday 2 June 2026
• Slough Consortium closed at 10am on Friday 5 June 2026
• Kendrick stayed open until midnight on 1 July 2026

In that cycle, Reading School registration closed first, followed by Buckinghamshire and Slough, then Kendrick. Missing the normal window can have serious consequences, but Reading School tells families with exceptional reasons to contact its admissions team, and late policies vary by school. Do not assume a missed window has the same remedy everywhere.

Work backwards from the earliest deadline for schools genuinely on your shortlist. Reading School tested some 2027-entry children in July of Year 5, so a September-only timeline would miss that sitting.

Keep your own checklist of each school's registration, test date, access-arrangement deadline and home-council application date. Use the school and council pages for your child's entry year.

The lookup below shows the checked Slough Consortium dates and registration link. Kendrick and Reading School run their own separate tests, so check their pages as well.

1 May to 5 June: registering for the Slough Consortium

Registration for the Slough Consortium 11+ for September 2027 entry opened at 10am on Friday 1 May 2026 and closed at 10am on Friday 5 June 2026, with the test on Saturday 19 September 2026 (Slough Consortium portal). One test registration covered the four schools' shared assessment. Each school still applies its own admissions and oversubscription criteria, and each must be named separately on the council application if you want it considered.

Note the 10am closing time. A deadline that falls mid-morning on a working Friday catches people who assume they have until midnight.

The Consortium test is provided by GL Assessment. Children sit two test papers containing a mix of verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and mathematics, rather than one paper per subject. That format matters for preparation: your child needs to switch question types inside a single timed paper, which is a different skill from working through a subject-specific practice book. Our notes on GL Assessment style papers cover what that mix usually looks like.

School open events can take place before or after a test, so check the current dates for the schools on your shortlist.

What a standardised score of 111 means

For September 2027 entry the Consortium eligibility standard is a standardised score of 111 or above, which places a pupil in roughly the top 35% of the cohort sitting the examination (Langley Grammar School).

A score of 111 met the shared 2027-entry eligibility standard; it did not guarantee an offer at any of the four schools. Each school then applied its own oversubscription criteria. A standardised result also cannot be compared directly with a raw practice-paper mark. We explain that distinction in 11 plus pass marks and qualifying scores.

How address and school criteria affect the offer

After a child meets the shared 2027-entry standard, each school applies its own policy. Langley Grammar School's 2027 arrangements include priority areas and a published admission number of 180. The first priority area covers SL3 7, SL3 8, SL3 9 and SL3 0; other categories follow the exact order in the policy.

Priority Area 2 covers SL0, SL1, SL2, the rest of SL3, SL4, TW18 to TW20, UB3, UB4, UB7, UB8 and UB10. Priority Area 3 stretches to SL5 to SL9, TW3, TW4, TW5, TW7, TW13 to TW15, UB1, UB2, UB5, UB6, UB9, HA1 to HA6, W5, W7, W13, RG12 and RG42. Applicants living outside all of the priority areas fall into the sixth and final oversubscription criterion.

Each of the four schools publishes different criteria. Upton Court has a Free School Meals and Pupil Premium category with evidence requirements. St Bernard's, as a Catholic school, has faith-based criteria and supplementary paperwork. Read the current arrangements for every school you intend to list, including the address and evidence rules.

The council application and any school forms

Registering for the 11+ is not applying for a school place. Submit the Common Application Form to the local authority where your child lives, even if the schools you list are elsewhere. Slough Council accepts Slough residents' on-time 2027-entry applications from 1 September to 31 October 2026 and gives 1 March 2027 as offer day. Other home councils may publish different application deadlines.

If you are listing St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School, its 2027-entry instructions say to complete its separate Supplementary Form by 31 October 2026 so it can rank your child under its faith-based criteria. You must also submit your home council's application. Slough residents have the same date for that council form, but completing one form does not submit the other. Families living elsewhere must check their own council's deadline.

Reading and Kendrick: for most of Slough, this is not the route

Reading School and Kendrick use their own tests and geographic rules. Check them separately before adding either to a Slough shortlist.

Reading School's 2027 catchment area includes SL4 and SL5 but not SL1, SL2 or SL3 (Reading School). Its 2027 day admissions policy places eligible out-of-catchment children in a later category after in-catchment priorities. The school says it considers out-of-catchment day applicants only if places remain. It held a separate September sitting for them, but permission to sit is not evidence that an out-of-catchment offer is likely. Boarding has its own policy and should be checked separately.

Kendrick School uses a designated area in its admissions criteria. Check the current area and priority rules before registering. A past pattern of offers cannot guarantee what will happen in the next allocation round.

For 2027 entry, Kendrick's assessment was on 18 September 2026 and Slough's on 19 September. Both used GL Assessment, but check each school's current familiarisation guidance for subjects, answer format and timing before treating one practice paper as preparation for both.

Reading School's 2027 assessment was provided by FSCE Ltd. Its 2027 admissions policy describes four papers covering thinking as an author and problem solver, plus key stage 2 subjects up to the Year 5 programme. Use the school's own familiarisation guidance rather than assuming a GL paper or a commercial mock reproduces it.

Crossing the Buckinghamshire border

Buckinghamshire's Secondary Transfer Test for September 2027 entry was held on 8 and 10 September 2026, before the Slough test. Registration opened 1 May 2026 and closed at 3pm on Tuesday 2 June 2026, three days before Slough's. Check the next cycle's dates before planning to sit both.

For Slough families, Buckinghamshire Council says to register children who attend any school outside Buckinghamshire, including a partner school. Children attending a state-funded primary school within Buckinghamshire are registered automatically. Follow the council's current instructions for identity and test-day paperwork.

The Bucks test is a different paper from the Consortium's, so read our Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test guide before assuming Slough preparation covers it. It does not fully. Both are reasoning-heavy, so the overlap is real, but the format differences are worth a few practice sessions in the summer holidays.

September to March: sitting, results and offers

For 2027 entry, Reading School held some tests in July 2026, while other routes tested in September. Results came through the individual test systems. Families then applied for school places through their home council. Slough Council gives its residents 31 October 2026 as the on-time application deadline and 1 March 2027 as offer day. Check the deadline published by your own council if you live elsewhere.

The coordinated system normally makes one school offer. A separate test result never submits the council preference form for you.

Frequently asked questions about Slough and Berkshire grammar schools

How many grammar schools are there in Slough? Four: Herschel, Langley, St Bernard's Catholic and Upton Court. All four use the shared Slough Consortium 11+. Khalsa Secondary Academy and Al-Madani are not selective and do not sit the Consortium test, despite several sites counting them.

What is the pass mark for Slough grammar schools? For September 2027 entry, the shared eligibility standard was a standardised score of 111 or above. That is a qualifying threshold, not an offer guarantee. Each school's oversubscription criteria determine how eligible applicants are prioritised.

Do I have to sit a separate test for each Slough grammar school? No. One Consortium test covers all four, using the same papers. The schools have different admissions criteria, and you must name each one you want on the home-council form. Kendrick, Reading School and Buckinghamshire have separate test routes.

Can my child sit the Slough, Kendrick and Buckinghamshire tests in the same year? For 2027 entry, the Bucks, Kendrick and Slough main sittings did not fall on the same day. A future cycle's dates and any personal test-day clash must be checked before registering.

Is Reading School realistic from Slough? SL4 and SL5 are inside its 2027 catchment; SL1, SL2 and SL3 are outside. Reading School permits an out-of-catchment day test sitting, but its policy considers that category after in-catchment applicants and the school says such children are considered only if places remain. Check boarding separately.

Does preparation for one test cover the others? Slough and Kendrick both used GL Assessment for 2027 entry, but compare their published samples rather than assuming identical papers. Buckinghamshire and Reading School used different assessments. Check the next entry year's official format before choosing materials.

Formats and dates change between cycles, so confirm each school and council page before acting. If you want to organise practice, create a free Smart Cub Learning account and plan around the test formats your child will actually sit.