Getting into Reading School
The Reading 11+, set by FSCE: 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
The test was sat on Thursday 16 July 2026. Results are due mid-October 2026.
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 Reading 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
Reading sits the FSCE 11+.
FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise) is a not-for-profit test provider set up by Reading School, and a growing number of grammar schools now use it. Its papers stay close to the Key Stage 2 curriculum: English and Maths, not abstract reasoning puzzles. That makes it a fairer test, because what counts is what children have actually learned at school. FSCE publishes no past papers, so there is nothing to drill from, but you can still prepare properly. Steady work on KS2 English and Maths is what pays off, and that is exactly the ground PlusProgress practice covers.
FSCE publishes no past papers, which unsettles parents used to drilling them, but it also means there is nothing to drill and steady curriculum work is the whole strategy. The papers stay close to Key Stage 2 English and Maths, which is exactly the ground PlusProgress practice covers, adapting difficulty as your child improves rather than repeating what they can already do.
How places are decided
150 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Category 1 priority places (looked-after children, Pupil Premium or Service Premium in the catchment, demonstrated social or welfare need, children of school staff); Category 2 up to 15 sporting aptitude places across day and boarding; Category 3 named Reading feeder primaries within 4.6 miles whose families live in the priority postcodes, up to half the remaining places; Category 4 priority postcodes, up to 80% of what is left; Category 5 the wider catchment; Category 6 everyone else with an eligible score. Ranked by standardised test score inside each category, with twins and multiples taken first where a sibling is in the top 138.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
What the official figures show
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.
The school has confirmed that no offers are made under the qualifying score. For 2025 entry, five day places were filled from the waiting list, the last of them on 1 October 2025.
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
Reading tests early: boys in the catchment, and all boarding applicants, sat on Thursday 16 July 2026, at the end of Year 5. Boys living outside the catchment sit later, on Friday 25 September 2026. It means preparation has to start a year earlier than for most grammar schools.
No. FSCE publishes familiarisation guides rather than past papers, and the school says the content changes each year so the guide is not definitive. Steady work on the Key Stage 2 curriculum is what pays off here.
There is no published number. The eligible score is set each year, and clearing it puts a boy into the category system rather than into a place.
Priority places come first (Pupil Premium or Service Premium in the catchment, demonstrated welfare need, staff children), then up to 15 sporting aptitude places, then boys at the named Reading feeder primaries, then the priority postcodes, then the wider catchment, then everyone else. Inside each category, boys are ranked by standardised score.
The priority postcodes are RG1, RG2, RG30, RG31, RG4, RG5, RG6, RG7, RG8, RG9, RG10, RG40 and RG41. The wider catchment adds RG12, RG14, RG18, RG19, RG26, RG27, RG42, RG45, GU15, GU17, GU19, GU46, GU47, OX10, SL4 and SL5. Your address has to hold from test day through to National Offer Day.
Boarding is weekly, has no catchment, and boarding applicants sit on the main July date alongside in-catchment day applicants. There are 12 boarding places against 138 day places.
A format-matched mock shows where he genuinely stands.