Kendrick School is a selective state girls' grammar school in Reading, Berkshire, educating girls aged 11 to 18 as a single-academy trust. For entry to Year 7 in September 2027, the school is admitting 128 girls through its own Kendrick School Admission Test - the school's admissions policy uses no name such as "Reading SET", despite that term circulating online. In 2025, 90% of Kendrick's GCSE grades were at grade 9, 8 or 7.
Preparing for the Kendrick School Admission Test?
Our expert 11+ tutors help students across Reading prepare for the Kendrick School Admission Test, building the English, maths and verbal and non-verbal reasoning skills the GL Assessment papers cover.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppUpdated for 2027 entry - Kendrick's real test name, PAN and 2026-2027 dates
Kendrick's own ratified admissions policy for September 2027 entry sets the Year 7 Admission Number at 128 places and gives the admission test no name beyond the Kendrick School Admission Test - not the "Reading SET" label commonly used elsewhere online.
The test is confirmed for 18 September 2026 for designated-area candidates, with registration open from 1 May to 1 July 2026, results shared before the 31 October 2026 Common Application deadline, and national offer day on 1 March 2027.
Kendrick's reputation rests on results the school itself publishes. In 2025, 79% of A-level grades awarded were at grade A*, A or B, with 26% at A*, and at GCSE 90% of grades were at grade 9, 8 or 7, with 76% at grade 9 or 8. Kendrick's 2024 GCSE Progress 8 value-added score was +1.07, which the school says places it among the top few schools nationally on that measure; no Progress 8 score was published for 2025, because that cohort missed the Key Stage 2 assessments Progress 8 is calculated from, owing to the pandemic.
Kendrick became an academy in February 2011 and is now its own single-academy trust, though it remains a state school with no fees. Reading has two selective state grammar schools that test separately: Kendrick admits girls, and Reading School admits boys. Families weighing both routes need two separate registrations, since the two schools use different tests from different providers: Kendrick's own test is marked by GL Assessment, while Reading School has adopted the FSCE Entrance Test.
For Reading families, the appeal is a highly academic state education without independent-school fees - but the demanding process does not stop once a place is secured. Entry to Kendrick is genuinely selective, and the results above are what a successful application is competing against.
Kendrick's own admissions pages and its ratified Year 7 Admission Policy do not use any name such as "Reading SET" or "Reading Selective Eligibility Test" for the exam - it is simply the Kendrick School Admission Test, and no joint or consortium-branded test exists between Kendrick and Reading School. Confusing the two is easy, because both are Reading grammar schools admitting for the same year of entry, but their tests are separate: GL Assessment marks and standardises Kendrick's papers, and Reading School uses a different test from a different provider, Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd (FSCE).
Candidates sit two papers, each approximately one hour, with a short break between them. Together the papers cover a combination of English, mathematics, non-verbal reasoning and verbal reasoning - there is no creative writing element. GL Assessment carries out all marking and standardisation, age-standardising the raw scores and ranking candidates on the aggregate of both papers.
For girls inside Kendrick's designated area, the test for this cycle was held on 18 September 2026, in either the morning or the afternoon session, for entry into Year 7 in September 2027. Candidates who live outside the designated area sit on a separate, later date that Kendrick confirms closer to the time, rather than alongside designated-area candidates on 18 September 2026.
Because the four skill areas are combined across two timed papers rather than split into one English paper and one maths paper, pacing across all four question types - not depth in any single one of them - is usually what separates a strong overall score from a merely capable one.
Kendrick's Admission Number for Year 7 entry in September 2027 is 128 places - the figure set out in the school's own ratified admission policy, not the smaller number sometimes quoted online. There is no fixed, published pass mark. Instead, a qualifying score is calculated afresh each year, to two decimal places, from that year's actual test performance, so the mark needed for an offer moves with the strength of the cohort sitting the test in any given year.
Whether a strong score is enough on its own also depends on where a family lives. Kendrick allocates most of its places through a two-tier "designated area" rather than a simple radius, and no candidate living outside that designated area has been offered a place, regardless of score, since the arrangement was introduced in 2013. The full postcode-by-postcode breakdown of both priority tiers, how they interact, and what happens on the waiting list after allocation day, is set out in our guide to Kendrick's catchment area for September 2027 entry.
What this means for preparation is straightforward: a family cannot target a published number, only the strongest achievable score inside the test itself - since, for most applicants, that score is what the designated-area system then ranks.
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Our expert 11+ tutors assess a daughter's current English, maths and reasoning skills against the standard the Kendrick School Admission Test actually needs, then build a tutoring programme around the gaps that matter most for her.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppKendrick opened online registration for the Admission Test on 1 May 2026, with a deadline of 1 July 2026 (midnight) to register. Girls whose date of birth falls between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016, and who are working in Year 6 at the time of testing, are eligible to apply in the normal age group.
The test itself was held on 18 September 2026 for candidates living inside Kendrick's designated area; candidates from outside the designated area sit on a separate, later date that Kendrick says it will advise in due course. Results are shared with parents before the Common Application Form deadline of 31 October 2026, which is also the deadline Reading's admissions authority, Brighter Futures for Children, sets for the local authority application itself. National secondary offer day, when every family learns which school has offered their daughter a place, is 1 March 2027.
Because registration for the test closes months before the local authority application deadline, the practical planning point is Kendrick's own registration date, not the general secondary-transfer timetable - a family that misses 1 July 2026 has missed the chance to sit Kendrick's own test, whatever else they do before 31 October.
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For most children, serious preparation should begin no later than the start of Year 5, with structured work continuing through to the exam in Year 6. Starting earlier is not wasted effort — it allows time to identify and address genuine gaps rather than simply drilling practice papers at the last minute.
Our 11+ specialists work with Kendrick applicants on the same combined verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths skills the Kendrick School Admission Test actually uses, building the fluency needed to compete for a place at this highly selective Reading grammar school. Our students have achieved a 95%+ offer rate across selective school entry. Book a free consultation to discuss a preparation plan for the Kendrick School Admission Test.
A realistic preparation plan for the Kendrick School Admission Test should include:
One preparation tip that matters for the English component of the test: comprehension questions frequently ask children to explain how a writer creates an effect, not just what happens in the text. Many children are taught to identify language features but not to explain their impact precisely. Practising this type of analytical response — using short, specific quotations and explaining the effect on the reader — is one of the most targeted things you can do to improve performance on that part of the paper.
At Leading Tuition, we provide 1-to-1 specialist tutoring for children preparing for the Kendrick School Admission Test. Our tutors are familiar with the specific demands of this exam — the style of comprehension and reasoning questions, the level of mathematical reasoning required, and the pace at which children need to work to complete both papers effectively.
We begin by assessing where your daughter currently is, identifying the areas that will make the most difference to her score, and building a structured programme around her individual needs. We do not use a one-size-fits-all approach, because the children who sit this exam are not one-size-fits-all learners. Preparation for Kendrick requires precision, and that is what we aim to provide.
For official entry requirements and registration details, see Kendrick's own Admission into Year 7 in September 2027 guidance, and, for the local authority side of the process, Brighter Futures for Children's secondary admissions guide. We also work with families across Reading beyond the 11+ years, once a daughter has a place.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
Reviewed September 2026: the admission-test name, format, dates, Admission Number and designated-area rules checked against Kendrick School's own ratified 2027 admissions policy, its test-day pages and results pages, and against Reading's admissions authority guidance.
We usually recommend beginning structured preparation at the start of Year 5, a full school year before the test, which Kendrick holds in September of Year 6 (for September 2027 entry, the main test was on 18 September 2026). Starting early allows time to build genuine fluency in English, maths and verbal and non-verbal reasoning, rather than drilling practice papers in the final weeks. Girls already in Year 6 can still prepare effectively, but the programme usually needs to be more intensive to cover the same ground in less time. Registration falls in the summer term of Year 5 (for September 2027 entry it opened on 1 May 2026 and closed on 1 July 2026), so the preparation timeline and the registration timeline run in parallel, not one after the other.
No. Kendrick's admissions policy does not fix or publish a pass mark in advance. A qualifying score is instead calculated each year, to two decimal places, from that year's actual test results, and oversubscription criteria only apply if more applicants reach that score than there are places. In practice this means the mark needed for an offer moves with the strength of the cohort sitting the test in any given year, so preparation should aim for the strongest possible score rather than a fixed target number.
No. Kendrick School's own admissions pages and its ratified Year 7 Admission Policy for September 2027 entry do not use that name anywhere; the test is simply the Kendrick School Admission Test, marked and standardised by GL Assessment. Reading School, the separate boys' grammar school in Reading, uses a different test altogether, the FSCE Entrance Test, and the two schools do not share a joint or consortium-branded exam. Treat any source using a "Reading SET" or "Reading Selective Eligibility Test" label with caution.
Candidates sit two papers, each approximately one hour long, with a short break between them. Together the two papers combine English, mathematics, non-verbal reasoning and verbal reasoning, rather than splitting neatly into one English paper and one maths paper. There is no creative writing element. GL Assessment marks and age-standardises the raw scores, and Kendrick ranks candidates on the aggregate of both papers' standardised scores, not on either paper in isolation.
No. Girls sit the test once per admissions cycle, in the autumn of Year 6, and there is no routine resit within the same year. Kendrick's policy only allows a later sitting, within two weeks of the main date, for documented illness, bereavement or a genuine religious-observance clash, decided by the Headteacher. This makes thorough preparation before the single sitting particularly important, since there is no second attempt to fall back on if a child has an unrepresentative day. Book a free consultation to make sure that single sitting is well prepared for.
She can still register and sit the test. However, Kendrick's own admissions policy is explicit that no candidate living outside the designated area has been offered a place, whatever score they achieve, since the designated area was introduced in 2013. Out-of-area candidates also sit the test on a different, later date rather than alongside designated-area candidates on 18 September 2026. Our Kendrick catchment area guide sets out exactly which postcodes fall inside each priority tier, and how the two tiers are ranked.
It is worth finding out where she placed on the ranked list, since waiting-list movement does happen after allocation day. Beyond that, Reading has other strong secondary options, and some families look at independent-school entry, at grammar schools in neighbouring areas, or, where it genuinely applies, at a 13+ transfer route instead of an 11+ one; our guide to 13+ routes in Reading explains when that option is realistic. A tutor who knows the local landscape can help a family think through which of these fits their daughter's specific results.
Our expert 11+ tutors work one-to-one with girls preparing for the Kendrick School Admission Test, building English, mathematics and verbal and non-verbal reasoning together, in the combined format the test actually uses, rather than treating them as separate subjects. We start by finding out where a daughter's skills stand now, then build a programme around the specific gaps that matter for her, working towards the registration window in the summer term of Year 5 and the test in September of Year 6. Book a free consultation to discuss a preparation plan built around your daughter's actual starting point.
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