Getting into Kendrick School
The Kendrick 11+, set by GL Assessment: what it involves and what to do next, for entry in September 2027.
Every fact on this page is checked against the school’s published admissions information, and nothing is guessed. · View sources · Report an error
Registration for the September 2026 test closed on 1 July 2026. Kendrick accepts late applications only in exceptional circumstances, decided by the headteacher. Otherwise: 1 weeks to test day.
What to do and when
Sitting the year after (2028 entry)? These are 2027-entry dates, and yours are not published yet: there is nothing you need to do this far out. Sign up for reminders and tick the 2028-entry box, and we’ll email only when your cycle’s dates are out and it is actually time to act.
5 dates as a calendar file, for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. Share the link with anyone who needs them.
Life’s busy, so we’ll email you a nudge before each Kendrick deadline above. Nothing else: no newsletter, no marketing, and the reminders stop for good after National Offer Day (1 Mar 2027) unless you sign up again for another school.
The test, in one look
Kendrick sits the GL Assessment 11+.
GL Assessment sets the 11+ for most grammar schools in England, including this one. Papers are multiple-choice, and scores are age-standardised: children born at different points in the school year are marked against slightly different scales, so a summer-born child isn’t disadvantaged. Because GL is the most widely used format, familiarisation materials and practice papers in the same style are easy to come by.
Because GL is multiple-choice and age-standardised, the two things that move a score are accuracy under time pressure and covering every question type rather than the comfortable ones. PlusProgress practice is adaptive across English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning, so it keeps finding the types your child is weakest on instead of rewarding what they already do well, and mock papers follow the format this school sets. Progress is reported as a standardised age score, the same scale the school will use.
How places are decided
128 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: Yes, a designated area of two priority zones set by postcode sector. Area 1 covers RG1 and named sectors of RG2, RG4, RG5, RG6, RG30 and RG31; Area 2 adds further RG, GU and SL6 sectors. The address must hold on 31 August 2026.
Ranked by test score, then: looked-after and previously looked-after girls; girls in receipt of Pupil Premium or Service Premium living in Priority Area 1 or 2 (both qualify at 5 points below the year's qualifying score, and both are offered a place even if outside the top 128); then up to 75% of places (96) to girls in Priority Area 1 or 2 in rank order; then the remaining 25% (32) in the order Priority Area 1, Priority Area 2, then girls outside the designated area.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
How many children actually sit
Schools and councils publish some of this and not all of it. The numbers below came from Freedom of Information requests, which anyone can make, and each one links to the reply it came from.
747 children sat for Kendrick in 2024, for 128 places, about 5.8:1. Source
How pupils here do at GCSE
This is based on how pupils at this school go on to perform in their GCSEs, five years after the 11+. Attainment 8 is their average result across eight subjects. Read it as a description of outcomes rather than of teaching: a selective school admits children who were already scoring well at ten, so a high position here reflects who the school takes in as much as what it does with them.
Scores from Compare school and college performance data in England, Department for Education, 2024/25, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Department publishes the scores and does not publish a ranking: the position above is ours, calculated over state-funded schools with a published score. See the full table.
Common questions
Kendrick sets a qualifying score each year, to two decimal places, once it has seen how the cohort performed. There is no fixed number to aim at, and last year’s is not this year’s. Girls in receipt of Pupil Premium or Service Premium, and girls in care, qualify at 5 points lower.
No, any girl can sit the test. But the designated area does most of the work afterwards: 96 of the 128 places go to girls living in Priority Area 1 or 2, in rank order of score, and the last 32 go to Area 1 first, then Area 2, then everyone else. The areas are defined by postcode sector, so check your full postcode against the school’s list rather than assuming from the district.
No. The school allocates sessions and confirms yours by 17 July 2026, along with the arrangements for the day.
Registration ran from 1 May to midnight on 1 July 2026. Late applications are accepted only in exceptional circumstances, in writing to the admissions team and with documentary evidence, and the headteacher decides.
Before the 31 October 2026 council deadline, so you name your preferences knowing how she did. The school is clear that the result is guidance on suitability and not an offer.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.