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Thinking about applying to Herschel Grammar School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026 and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus entrance exam.
Key information for Herschel Grammar School
Address: Herschel Grammar School, Northampton Avenue, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3BW
Number of pupils: 1,000+
Admissions contact: [email protected]
Number of places in Year 7: 150
Catchment area: yes
Dates for your diary
The 2025 exam dates haven’t been published yet. However, they are likely to be the same as 2024. Please use the dates below as a guide.
Wednesday 1st May 2024: Slough 11+ registration opens
Monday 12th June 2024: Slough 11+ registration closes
Saturday 21st September 2024: Slough Consortium 11+ entrance test
Mid-October 2024: parents receive test results
Thursday 31st October 2024: secondary school applications close at 5pm
Monday 3rd March 2025: secondary school national offers day
About Herschel Grammar School
Herschel Grammar School is a grammar school for boys and girls in Slough, Berkshire. It was named after astronomers and composers Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline. Sir William founded the planet Uranus, while Caroline was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science. The school's ancestry is reflected in the naming of its house system.
Herschel Grammar School is rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted. The governing body praises pupils' behaviour and attitudes to learning. Students are taught social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours to help them manage emotional wellbeing. As a result, students leave as responsible and active citizens ready for the next stage of their lives, be it university or the workplace.
How to apply to Herschel Grammar School
Herschel Grammar School is a selective state school. This means that your child will need to take the 11 plus exam to be eligible for a place in Year 7.
Herschel Grammar School is a member of the Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools. All four grammar schools in the Consortium share the same entrance test. This means that your child will only need to take the test once – even if you’re applying to more than one grammar school in Slough.
The registration portal for the Slough Consortium of Grammar School will open in April 2025 and close in June 2025. After registration, your child will be invited to take the 11 plus exam at one of the participating schools. The Slough 11 plus exam will be held in September 2025 and you’ll receive your child’s results in mid-October.
To apply to Herschel Grammar School, you’ll need to name the school as one of your preferred schools on the secondary school common application form. This will be available on your home council website from early September and must be submitted by 31st October 2025.
Remember – passing the 11 plus doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for Herschel Grammar School below.
What subjects are on the Slough 11 plus?
The Slough Consortium 11 plus exam consists of two papers provided by GL Assessment. Most grammar schools in the UK use 11 plus papers provided by GL Assessment.
Each test lasts around one hour. This includes time for instructions, some worked (unmarked) example questions, and the real test questions. Your child will take both tests on the same day. There is a short break between the two papers.
One paper tests verbal skills, which includes English and verbal reasoning. The other paper tests non-verbal skills, which includes maths and non-verbal reasoning.
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How does place allocation work at Herschel Grammar School?
After the test, your child’s answer sheets are marked using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR). This technology picks up the marks your child has made to indicate which answers they think are correct. Your child receives a mark for every correct answer.
Your child’s raw scores are then age-standardised. This is a common practice in 11 plus scoring to make the exam fair for children born throughout the academic year. Standardisation takes into account how well your child has performed compared with the average performance of all children who took that particular test. It also shows how your child has performed compared with children of a similar age (e.g. born in the same month and year).
The standardised pass mark for the Slough Consortium 11 plus exam is 111. If your child achieves a score of 111 or higher, they will be eligible for a place at Herschel Grammar School. In September 2022, 855 children applying to Herschel Grammar were considered eligible for a place.
When the number of children who achieve the pass mark exceeds the number of places available, the school applies oversubscription criteria. Eligible children are prioritised for places at Herschel Grammar School in this order:
Looked after children and previously looked after children
Children who live within the school catchment area
Children who live within 10 miles of the school and are eligible for the Pupil Premium. Up to 10 places are reserved in this category
Children of permanent members of Herschel Grammar School staff (employed for at least two years)
Remaining places are allocated to children in rank order of their 11 plus score. In 2023, the lowest 11 plus score for which a child was offered a place in this criterion was 116.
What’s the catchment area for Herschel Grammar School?
Herschel Grammar School has a catchment area which covers an area of 4 miles from the school site. This distance is measured in a straight line from the child’s front door to the main entrance gate of the school.
This area covers Slough, Windsor, Taplow, Farnham Common and Langley.
Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation
The Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools 11 plus exam is designed to select the most academically-able children in Slough and the surrounding area. In 2023, 15% of children who sat the Slough Consortium 11+ were offered places at Slough grammar schools.
Here are our top tips to help you and your child feel confident for exam day.
Bitesize learning
It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key – our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. For children aged 10–11, child psychologists recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes.
Atom Home makes learning a more enjoyable process for your child. They'll explore exciting worlds full of interactive questions, earning coins to spend in the Atom shop. Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right level of difficulty to keep them motivated.
Read widely
11 plus exams test your child’s ability to analyse and interpret written information. Regular reading is a great way to help your child build these skills.
Encourage them to read books from different genres and by a diverse range of authors. Increasing the variety of your child’s reading will help them understand different styles, tones and purposes. Meanwhile, reading a little every day will help widen their vocabulary, sharpen their analytical thinking, and enhance their imagination.
Refine exam technique
When your child feels confident with the topics they’ve learnt in Year 5, they’ll be ready to put their knowledge to the test.
Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions. They’re also a great way to consolidate learning and highlight knowledge gaps for further improvement.
With Atom Home, you'll unlock online mock tests and printable practice papers for the Slough Consortium 11 plus exam. Enjoy automatic marking and progress tracking with the online tests, and help your child get familiar with the real exam experience with printable practice papers.
Celebrate progress
Setting regular, achievable goals and celebrating your child’s progress – no matter how big or small – will help keep their motivation high.
Make sure to encourage a growth mindset. This means celebrating effort, as well as achievement! When your child makes mistakes or struggles to understand a particular topic, help them understand that they’ll improve through practice. Regular praise will help your child improve their resilience when tackling new and challenging topics.
Tailored preparation for the Slough 11 plus
Wish you could give your child a roadmap to success in the Slough Consortium 11 plus? You can. Atom Home has everything you need to get prepared, in one package.
You don't need a tutor to get into your top-choice grammar school. You just need Atom. We’ll create a tailored plan for your child and support them along their fun revision journey.
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In 2024, 91% of Atom users got offered a place at their top-choice school.
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