The Ultimate Guide To Reading School Entry
Founded in 1125, Reading School is a prestigious selective boys' grammar school with Academy status. It boasts exceptional academic results, with over 90% of Year 13 students achieving A* to B grades in A Levels and more than 85% of GCSE students securing the highest grades. With 150 students per year group, 80 boarders, and 360 students in the Sixth Form, Reading School offers a vibrant community. Named the Secondary School of the Year for the South East in the Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2024, the school excels in music, sport, and drama. Rugby and cricket have particularly strong fixture lists, and other sports are played to a high standard.
The School
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Open Days for Year 7 2026 entry were held on 31st March and 1st April 2025. Open days for entry in 2027 are yet to be announced
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The registration window opened on 1st April 2025 and closed at midday on Friday 13th June 2025. The registration window for the 2026 entrance exams is not yet open
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Mock exam days for boys currently in Years 4 and 5 will be taking place on the following dates, following the brand new four paper exam format:
Sunday 18th January 2026
Sunday 26th April 2026
Saturday 6th June 2026
Saturday 11th July 2026
Sunday 9th August 2026
Saturday 22nd August 2026
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To be announced for 2027 entry
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The exam date for 2026 (for 2027 entry) is yet to be announced
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Results were released in October 2025
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Click here for the full Admissions Policies document provided by Reading School
Key Dates
The Entrance Exams
October 2025 update: As the majority of parents are already likely aware, Reading School launched a completely new format for its entrance exams, beginning with the September 2025 set of exams. All of the information in this guide has been updated to reflect this new four paper exam format. We also held a focus group in early October 2025, inviting 14 boys to provide us with their first hand feedback, having sat the new format exams in September 2025. Our specialist examination team, which includes examiners, alongside current and ex grammar school teachers, have created five brand new sets of mock papers, numbered 'RS1' to 'RS5'. All students sitting a mock exam with us will be sitting papers which match the new format (Adventure Paper, Beacon Paper, Compass Paper and Discovery Paper).
Candidates were tested by the school on Friday 5th September 2025. The exam date 2026 has not yet been announced.
There will be four separate tests on exam day. The Reading School entrance exams test boys across a range of subjects covered in the Key Stage 2 curriculum:
Maths
English
History
Science
PE
Geography
Languages
Art & Design
Music
Computing
Design & Technology
These exams are set by Future Stories (FSCE) and differ from the standard 11+ exam sat in other parts of the country. Unlike other entrance and 11+ exams, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning do not play a part in the Reading School entrance exams. There are generally only 150 places available in Year 7, so unfortunately doing well in the exams does not guarantee a place. After results are released in mid-October, other factors are taken into consideration, such as your distance from the school.
Papers 1, 2 and 3:
These papers consist of multiple choice and free response questions, based on the syllabus up to the end of Year 5.
Adventure Paper
Beacon Paper
Compass Paper
Paper 4:
This is the Creativity Task. The Discovery Paper will only be assessed if students achieve an eligible score in Papers 1, 2 and 3. Reading School define creativity as: ‘the ability to think of new and imaginative ideas, or to solve problems in original and unique ways’.
Please click on the following links for the official familiarisation guide for children and the official familiarisation guide for parents, released by Reading School for the 2025 exams.
Catchment Areas
You can view the catchment area for Reading School below. To apply for and sit the entrance exams, students do not need to live in the catchment area, however the catchment area does strongly affect how available school places are allocated to students who are successful in the exams.
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RG1, RG2, RG4, RG5, RG6, RG7, RG8, RG10, RG12, RG18, RG19, RG30, RG31, RG40, RG41, RG42, RG45. RG9 1, RG9 2, RG9 3, RG9 4 & RG9 5 RG14 1, RG14 2, RG14 3, RG14 5, RG14 6 & RG14 7 RG20 4, RG20 5, RG20 6 & part of RG20 7 (east of A34) RG26 3, RG26 4 & part of RG26 5 (north of A339) RG27 0 parts of RG27 8 & RG27 9 (north of M3)
GU15 1, GU15 2, GU15 3 & GU15 4 GU17 0 & GU17 9 GU19 5 GU46 6 & GU46 7 GU47 0, GU47 8 & GU47 9
OX10 0, OX10 8, OX10 9 & part of OX10 6 (south of A4130) OX11 9
SL4 4 SL5 0, SL5 7, SL5 8 & SL5 9
Current Reading School Year 9 Student
“The maths and English tests were pretty much what I expected, but I did find the creative writing quite challenging.”
How we can help at Brainbox Learning Reading
Starting at just £28.50 per hour, the one-to-one, face-to-face tuition we offer is completely tailored towards the requirements of the Reading School entrance exam, and is guaranteed to stand your child in the best stead when exam time comes around. In all cases, our sessions provide the ideal mix between honing the necessary English, maths and creative writing skills required to succeed, and providing enough exposure to our real world mock and past exam papers that taking the real exam will feel like second nature. Click here for more information, price lists or to book a free consultation.
Our mock exam days provide boys with:
the experience of sitting the new four-paper format entrance exam under timed conditions and managing their nerves, in an exam hall filled with unfamiliar faces from other schools
a realistic opportunity to track and measure their progress and level, and increase their confidence
fully individualised, detailed, question-by-question feedback reports, with question walkthroughs, teacher comments and links to further practice resources
We replicate as closely as possible the conditions boys will experience on the day of the real exam, from the moment they are dropped off, all the way through to pickup time. Our papers are carefully created from scratch by a team of expert 11+ teachers, with many years of experience teaching in schools, privately, and writing, marking and moderating real school exams. For each mock exam sat with us, parents will receive a fully comprehensive feedback report and presentation to look through with their child.
