This event is for students in Year 5 and their parents who are looking at Kendrick School as a secondary school option in September 2027.

Kendrick School is a selective academy for girls aged 11-18 and is acknowledged as one of the best state schools in the country. In all its OFSTED inspections, Kendrick was judged outstanding. Kendrick is proud of its superb reputation and the opportunities it affords its students to participate in an all-round education where their thirst for knowledge and love of learning is nurtured in a secure and caring environment. If your daughter is in Year 5 and showing academic potential at her primary school and has an enquiring mind and a love of learning, we invite you to attend one of our Open Day sessions.

The sessions will take place in either the morning or afternoon and will last approximately 1½ hours. There will be a tour of the school with our students, and a talk by the Headteacher, Ms Kattirtzi and our Student Leader Team.

BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL. Car parking is not available on the school site. For safeguarding reasons you must bring your Year 5 child to the session with you. Adults without a child will not be admitted to the school. Please note that we cannot accommodate pushchairs, scooters or bikes of any kind at the event.

Due to demand for tickets, we are restricting the open event to those families who live in our designated area. Please see the information on our website regarding out of designated area applicants. 

PLEASE ONLY BOOK ONE FAMILY TICKET AS THIS ADMITS UP TO 3 PEOPLE.  

For example one ticket could admit 2x adults and 1x Year 5 child; OR 1xadult and 1xYear 5 child and 1x sibling; OR 1x adult and 1xYear 5 child.

TO BOOK A TICKET PLEASE CLICK HERE

Please read the following important information:

• The ticket is for 3 people, one of which must include the Year 5 child. For example one ticket could admit 2x adults and 1x Year 5 child; OR 1xadult and 1xYear 5 child and 1x sibling; OR 1x adult and 1xYear 5 child.
• For health and safety reasons we will not be able to allow access to more than 3 people on the ticket, including younger children/siblings.
• There is no parking on the school site unless you have a blue badge for accessibility reasons. Please email admissions@kendrick.reading.sch.uk if this is the case.
• Please wear suitable clothing for the weather as the event will take place both inside and outside. You will be waiting outside whilst registration takes place.
• Please note you will not be able to access the site before the start time of your session or leave before the session has ended.
• Please arrive on time, we will not be able to admit latecomers after registration has finished
• We politely ask that you do not use your mobile phone whilst on the school site. The taking of photographs and videos is strictly forbidden.

For further information please read the Frequently Asked Questions here.

Please read the following carefully:

• 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.
• The postcodes that are within our designated area can be found here.
• By registering your child for Kendrick School admission test, we will be unable to accommodate any non-attendance on the test date due to your child's participation in other entrance tests held on the same day. 
•  The vast majority of individual and groups of grammar schools set their tests in the first two or three weeks of September. There is no liaison between any of them with regard to the day that is selected. It is ultimately for parents to decide which schools they wish to name as a preference for their child, and this may require them making a decision about which grammar school tests their child sits. 

Candidates who live outside of our designated area will not sit the test on Friday 18th September 2026, but on a later date to be advised in due course. 

The online application form opened on 1st May 2026 and will close at midnight on 1st July 2026. The link to the application form will be published below in due course along with further information on the admission process.

The aim of our Widening Horizons Project is to work with local primary schools to raise the aspirations of local children and to raise awareness of Kendrick School.

For those students who are in Year 5 and are pupil premium, service premium or children in care and live in the school’s designated area and are interested in taking our admission tests, we provide a free familiarisation programme.  The programme starts as soon as you register your child for the admission tests, and includes access to online familiarisation material, face to face and/or online sessions, and workbooks.

We also run hold a virtual Inspire Club on a Tuesday after school for girls in Years 3, 4 and 5 who meet the Widening Horizons criteria.  We have had such positive feedback for the Inspire Club! ‘It wasn’t boring and I had fun!’ and ‘It gave my daughter confidence that she could sit the exam because the familiarisation sessions built on her confidence’. Every Tuesday our students work online with the primary school children on a variety of topics, and once a term we invite Years 3-5 students into Kendrick for face-to-face activities.

For more information on how to register your child for the familiarisation programme and/or Inspire Club please email admissions@kendrick.reading.sch.uk 

The tests will take place on Friday 18th September 2026 at Kendrick School, in either the morning or the afternoon. No alternative test date will be offered to candidates who wish to sit a test for another grammar school on the same day.

Candidates will sit two test papers, each approximately one hour, with questions covering a combination of verbal and non-verbal reasoning, English and mathematics. All marking and standardisation will be carried out by GL Assessment.

There is no creative writing element to the admission tests.

Familiarisation material is provided by GL Assessment and can be found below.  

To follow.

The following information and material is provided by GL Assessment.

We recommend children familiarise themselves with the multiple-choice layout of the test, content and examples of some types of questions they will face. To give all children the opportunity to experience sample questions across a range of question types in advance of the test, we provide 10 hours of free familiarisation materials. These are particularly useful for verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning tests as children may not have encountered these types of questions before. The exact timings for, and number of questions in, your local 11+ test may differ from those in our familiarisation and practice materials.

Familiarisation papers and practice papers each provide useful support when preparing for an 11+ test. They differ in the following aspects: Firstly, while familiarisation papers are freely available for download, practice papers are only accessible for purchase. Familiarisation papers are in PDF format for home printing, whereas practice papers come in printed booklet format. Each set has its own exclusive content, ensuring a unique testing experience. Familiarisation papers aim for general familiarity with test styles, while practice papers offer comprehensive preparation, including timed test conditions.

The free familiarisation materials can be found on GL Assessments' website here.