St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School Slough 11 Plus Guide 2026

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5. St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School Slough 11 Plus Guide 2026

St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School in Slough has a Planned Admission Number of 150 for September 2027 entry (also 150 for the September 2026 intake), filled through the Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools' shared 11+ examination and then ranked using the school's own ten-tier Catholic faith-priority admissions order. This guide sets out the test format, the 111 qualifying score, the full 2027 entry timetable, the complete faith-priority ranking (including the priest's reference or Certificate of Catholic Practice requirement), and St Bernard's GCSE and A-level results.

How Many Places Does St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School Offer for 2027 Entry?

St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School's Planned Admission Number (PAN) is 150 places in Year 7 for September 2027 entry, and it was also 150 for the September 2026 intake. The route to a place has two distinct stages. First, every applicant must sit the Slough Consortium 11+ examination and reach the qualifying standardised score of 111 — the same threshold used by the consortium's other three schools, Herschel Grammar School, Langley Grammar School and Upton Court Grammar School. Second, St Bernard's does not then rank eligible applicants by catchment area. Instead, it applies its own Catholic faith-priority admissions order, published in the school's Determined Admission Arrangements, working through ten categories from looked-after children down to any other children, and ranking children within each category first by Pupil Premium status (which the policy defines to include the Service Premium) and then by their score in the selective tests.

Children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan that names St Bernard's are admitted automatically, and the places available to other applicants are reduced accordingly. For every other applicant, a family's own faith-priority category — not their raw standardised score above 111 — sets the order in which places are offered, with Pupil Premium status and then the test score setting the order within a category, which is why the school asks families to complete a Supplementary Form alongside the standard Common Application Form.

What Is the Full Faith-Priority Admissions Order at St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School?

This is the part of St Bernard's admissions process that applies once more eligible children apply than there are places. Once a child has reached the standardised score of 111, places are offered in the following order of priority:

1. Looked-after children and previously looked-after children. 2. Practising baptised Catholic children with a priest's reference or a Certificate of Catholic Practice, which the family's parish priest issues if satisfied that at least one Catholic parent or carer (along with the child, if over seven years old) have attended Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation for at least five years (or, for a child, since the age of seven if shorter), except when it was impossible to do so. It is also issued where the practice has been continuous since being received into the Church less than five years ago. 3. Other baptised Catholic children. 4. Baptised or dedicated children of other Christian churches with a religious leader's reference. 5. Baptised or dedicated children of other Christian churches. 6. Children of other faiths attending a Slough Catholic primary school within St Peter's Pastoral Area who live in Slough. 7. Children of other faiths on roll at one of the Catholic primary schools in St Peter's Pastoral Area. 8. Children of other faiths with a religious leader's reference. 9. Children of other faiths. 10. Any other children.

The practical effect is significant for families. A child who scores well above 111 but falls into category 9 or 10 is considered only after the earlier categories, including a practising Catholic child with a priest's reference in category 2, even if the other child's score is higher.

What Format Is the St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School 11+ Exam?

The 11+ entrance examination that determines eligibility for St Bernard's is a shared examination run by the Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools (test provider: GL Assessment), which comprises four grammar schools: Herschel Grammar School, Langley Grammar School, St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School and Upton Court Grammar School. Every child registering for consideration sits the same examination, with common eligibility criteria across the four schools, so applicants do not sit separate tests for each school.

According to St Bernard's own admissions pages, pupils sit two test papers covering a combination of verbal and non-verbal reasoning, English and mathematics. GL Assessment is the test provider, and all marking and standardisation is carried out by the provider. Scores are reported on a standardised scale, and a standardised score of 111 or above is required for eligibility at any of the four consortium schools.

Does St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School Have a Catchment Area?

No. St Bernard's admissions policy has no catchment area, and proximity to the school is used only to decide a tie for the final place or places. Families living outside Slough can also list the school, applying through the local authority where they live, provided their child reaches the qualifying standardised score of 111. Once a child is eligible, their position in the offer order depends first on which of the ten priority categories the family qualifies for, then on Pupil Premium status and the child's test score — not on how close they live to the school on Langley Road, although proximity decides a tie for the final place.

This has a direct, practical consequence: because the policy has no catchment area, families should not assume that living close to the school on Langley Road, Slough SL3 7AF improves their chances. What matters for St Bernard's is the Supplementary Form, submitted alongside the Common Application Form, and — for the highest Catholic category — a priest's reference or Certificate of Catholic Practice, together with evidence of the child's baptism.

What Are the Key Dates for September 2027 Entry at St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School?

For children applying for a Year 7 place starting September 2027, the Slough Consortium's registration window opened on Friday 1 May 2026 at 10am and closed on Friday 5 June 2026 at 10am. Registration and the entrance examination are now past, and a child whose Supplementary Form is not returned is treated as "Any Other Children"; the dates still to come are the open mornings on 13-15 October 2026, results by the week beginning 19 October 2026, the Common Application Form and Supplementary Form by 31 October 2026 and National Offer Day on 1 March 2027.

For context on how tight this calendar can be, the previous entry cycle — September 2026 entry — ran as follows: results were released at 4pm on 17 October 2025, the Supplementary Form and Common Application Form deadline was 31 October 2025, National Offer Day fell on 2 March 2026, and the appeals deadline for unsuccessful applicants was Friday 8 May 2026, with appeals to be heard in June 2026, according to the school's 2026-entry page.

How Competitive Is Entry to St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School?

St Bernard's is over-subscribed, and its own admissions page says the school does not usually have places available outside the annual Year 7 intake. A standardised score of 111 places a child in the top 35% of the cohort sitting the Slough Consortium examination and makes them eligible for consideration — but, because the school's oversubscription criteria apply when more eligible children apply than there are places, eligibility and an offer are not the same thing. Categories are considered in order: category 2 (practising baptised Catholic children with a priest's reference or Certificate of Catholic Practice) comes before category 3 (other baptised Catholic children), and the other Christian categories, 4 and 5, follow. Families with no faith affiliation fall into the final "any other children" category, which is considered after all the faith-based categories, and a child whose Supplementary Form is not returned is treated in the same way.

Families should treat the Supplementary Information Form and any required priest's or religious leader's reference as being just as important to the outcome as exam preparation itself. The published admissions policy ranks children within a category first by whether they currently receive the Pupil Premium (including the Service Premium) and then by their score in the selective tests, with proximity to the school deciding any tie for the final place or places.

What GCSE and A-Level Results Does St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School Achieve?

Also important for families weighing the four Slough Consortium schools against each other is what happens after a child is admitted. St Bernard's own published results give a detailed, multi-year picture that sits alongside its Outstanding Ofsted rating.

In the school's GCSE results press release of 20 August 2026, 65% of all grades were awarded at grades 9-7, including 82% of Mathematics grades and 83% of History grades. In the Department for Education's published key stage 4 figures for the summer 2025 cohort, 98.1% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths, 96.8% entered the EBacc, and the Attainment 8 score was 77.3, against 53.1 for Slough and 46.1 for all state schools in England.

At A-level, the school's summer 2026 results summary shows 548 entries, with 46.4% graded A* or A and 74.6% graded A*-B, and an average grade of B+. Ofsted rated St Bernard's Outstanding in every one of its five inspection categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth form provision — on 7 November 2023, repeating the Outstanding grading the school also received at its previous full inspection on 29 September 2011.

For families weighing St Bernard's against the other three Slough Consortium schools, our Slough Grammar Schools 11+ hub compares admissions routes across the consortium, our Herschel Grammar School 11+ guide sets out that school's admissions in detail, and our 11+ Tuition in Slough page covers borough-wide preparation timelines. If you are mapping the wider exam calendar alongside other consortiums and independent schools, our 11+ Exam Dates 2026-2027 timetable is a useful cross-check, and our Slough tuition page covers local support beyond 11+ preparation. For the school's own admissions documentation, the official St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School Year 7 Admissions 2027 page is the primary source for the dates and figures in this guide.

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: dates, figures and rules checked against St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School's 2027 entry admissions page, Admissions Policy 2027 and August 2026 results releases, Slough Borough Council, Ofsted, Get Information about Schools and the DfE performance tables.

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