Reading School is a selective boys' grammar school. The school caters for day boys (138 places each year) and weekly boarders (12 places each year) alike and being within the state-maintained sector, all the education provided is free. Click here to find out more about life in Boarding.

Reading School is the perfect place for boys who are curious, bright and love learning.

• Boys who love giving everything a go; 
• Boys who grasp new ideas quickly without extra study. 
• Boys who enjoy coming up with new, imaginative ideas; 
• Boys who like applying learning from one topic to another; 
• Boys who keep going, even when something is unfamiliar or difficult; 
• Boys who like the tricky questions which have more than one answer; 

In addition, music, sport and drama flourish. Reading School has recently been named in the Top 25 Schools for Sport in the country and Top 5 State School for Sport in the country. We therefore reserve 10% of places each year for boys who demonstrate that they have both academic ability AND sporting aptitude. To be successful, boys must successfully complete a range of sporting aptitude assessments on a separate test day – tick the box on the registration form to reserve your place.

We celebrate uniqueness, and are well accustomed to supporting students with a range of SEND including neurodivergence. Everyone finds their place at Reading School.

Our timeline is much earlier than other secondary schools! 

The online entrance test registration form for 2026 entry will be available from Wednesday 25th March to midnight on Sunday 17th May 2026.

We would love you to join us at our Open Day on 25th March – register here:

If you feel you have an exceptional reason why you cannot make an application between 25th March and 17th May 2026, please contact: admissions@reading-school.co.uk.

Key Dates for Entry to Year 7 2027

2026

• Open Day: 25th March - Booking required with details available in the Open Day section
• Online registration form available on school website: 25th March
• Closing date for receipt of applications at Reading School: Midnight on Sunday 17th May
• Evidence deadline: 31st May
• Sporting Aptitude Assessment: Sunday 12th July
• Test date for SEN applicants: Wednesday 15th July
• Testing date for Day and Boarding applicants: Thursday 16th July
• Test date for Day applicants outside of catchment: Friday 25th September
• Results will be available online: Mid October 
• Deadline for submitting application form (CAF) to home LA: 31st October

2027

• Offer Date from your Local Authority: 1st March
• Acceptance Deadline: 12th March
• Welcome Evening: June  
• Induction Day for new students: July  
• Start of Term: 3rd September 

The Familiarisation Guides for the July 2026 entrance test are available at the following links:

Familiarisation Guide for children

Familiarisation Guide for parents

The Familiarisation Guides are designed to inform parents and candidates about the Entrance Test in order to: 

• Give a feel for the appearance of the actual assessment.  
• Introduce some of the symbols and phrases used in the assessment. 
• Provide examples of how questions will be asked. 
• Inform parents and candidates of the invigilation procedure. 
• Indicate the range of content that will be tested.  
• Highlight the range of answer formats used in the test. 

The Entrance Test content changes each year therefore the Familiarisation Guide is NOT definitive and the inclusion of any question types does NOT guarantee that they will be found in the actual test.

Please click on the link below to find out more about the FSCE Tests:

FSCE Information on Entrance Test for Year 7 entry in 2027

Please note: there are no commercially available practice test papers for the FSCE Ltd tests. 

Results will be available online by mid-October 2026.  Please note that when results are issued, being assessed as suitable for Reading School will not guarantee that your son will be offered a place as it is extremely likely that more boys will qualify for places than the School can accommodate. In this case we will apply our oversubscription criteria as listed in our Admissions Policy.

The 'eligible score' varies from year to year, and therefore comparisons to previous years are inappropriate. To be eligible, a candidate must be 'of the standard' in each of the elements of the entrance test. They may score highly on one area but if they perform poorly on another, they will not be classed as eligible.

If your child is not offered a place at the school of your choice, you have a right to appeal against this decision to an Independent Appeal Panel.

You can find information on the appeals process or submit an appeal online by clicking here

For entry in September 2025, the deadline for submitting an appeal was 31st March 2025.

For entry in September 2026 the deadline for submitting an appeal is 30th March 2026.

Appeals will normally be heard during May or June.

Places are allocated according to the admissions policies which can be found here. We tend to have more candidates pass the entrance test than places available, and thus we use our oversubscription criteria which are summarised below:

Category 1: Priority Places

Category 2: Sporting Aptitude

Category 3: Reading Feeder Schools

Category 4: Reading Priority Postcodes

Category 5: Catchment Area

Category 6: All other eligible candidates

Further details and explanation of the above categories can be found in the Admissions Policy and its appendices.

Assuming that more children pass the entrance test than places are available, then yes.

We have 75 primary schools named in Category 3 of our oversubscription criteria, and 13 priority Reading postcodes in Category 4. For details of these please see our Admissions Policies.

You can also use our handy tool below to check which oversubscription criteria you are eligible for: