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Thinking about applying to St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2024–2025 and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus entrance exam.
Key information for St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School
Address: St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School, 1 Langley Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL3 7AF
Number of pupils: 1,200+
Admissions contact: [email protected]
Number of places in Year 7: 180
Catchment area: no
Dates for your diary
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 St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School
St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School is a selective state school for boys and girls in Slough. It is the only co-educational Catholic grammar school in the country.
St Bernard's encourages academic performance, spiritual life, and belonging to the Church. Students develop positive relationships with all members of the school community. The school is committed to community outreach locally, nationally and internationally. Initiatives include supporting Catholic charities and organisations to help the disadvantaged, and a partnership with Sinethemba School in South Africa.
St Bernard's has a tradition of academic excellence and offers an international curriculum. This includes five languages on offer (French, Spanish, Latin, Japanese, and Ancient History).
How to apply to St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School
St Bernard's Catholic 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.
St Bernard's Catholic 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 2024 and close in June 2024. 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 on Saturday 21st September 2024 and you’ll receive your child’s results in mid-October.
To apply to St Bernard's Catholic 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 Thursday 31st October 2024.
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 St Bernard's Catholic 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 St Bernard's Catholic 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 St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School. In September 2022, 531 children applying to St Bernard’s 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 St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School in this order:
Looked after children and previously looked after children
Practising Baptised Catholic children who have a Priest’s reference or Certificate of Catholic Practice
Other Baptised Catholic children
Baptised or Dedicated Children of other Christian Churches, supported by a reference from a religious leader
Baptised or Dedicated Catholic children of other Christian Churches
Children of other faiths who attend Holy Family Catholic Primary School, Our Lady of Peace Catholic Primary School, St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School or St Ethelbert’s Catholic Primary School, and live permanently in Slough
Children from other faiths who attend Holy Family Catholic Primary School, Our Lady of Peace Catholic Primary School, St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School or St Ethelbert’s Catholic Primary School
Children of other faiths, supported by a reference from a religious leader
Children of other faiths
Any other children who have passed the Slough 11+ exam
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.
Online and printable Slough 11 plus practice papers
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Navigate the Slough 11 plus with confidence.
In 2024, 91% of Atom users got offered a place at their top-choice school.
Start your free trial today. Our specialists will get to work on your child’s plan. Relax, Slough 11 plus prep is sorted.
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