St Bernard's High School 11+ guide

Thinking about applying to St Bernard's High School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus.

Key information about St Bernard's High School

• Address: St Bernard's High School, Milton Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 7JS
• Number of pupils: 950+
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 175 (including 30 selective places)
• 11+ exam: CSSE 11+
• Catchment area: yes

Dates for your diary

• Tuesday 13th May 2025: registration opens for the CSSE 11 plus
• Friday 27th June 2025: registration closes for the CSSE 11 plus, and deadline for requests for special adjustments
• July 2025: parents receive test centre information by 16th July
• Saturday 20th September 2025: CSSE 11 plus exam
• Monday 13th October 2025: parents receive CSSE 11 plus results
• Friday 31st October 2025: secondary school applications close at 5pm
• Monday 2nd March 2026: secondary school national offers day

About St Bernard's High School

St Bernard’s High School is a Catholic bilateral school for girls in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. The school is mostly non-selective, but up to 30 places are reserved each year for girls who pass the CSSE 11 plus.

St Bernard's was founded by the Bernardine Sisters in 1910. Students' exam results place it above the national average and within the top 20% of schools. St Bernard's has a strong religious ethos and places emphasis on community and warmth.

How to apply to St Bernard's High School

St Bernard’s High School is a bilateral school. This means that only a proportion of places are academically-selective. These places are reserved for children who pass the 11 plus entrance exam.

St Bernard’s is a member of the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE). All 10 schools in the CSSE use the same 11 plus exam. This means that your child will only need to take the exam once – even if they’re applying to other schools in the consortium.

The deadline to register for the CSSE 11 plus exam is 27th June 2025. The exam will take place on Saturday 20th September 2025 and you’ll receive your child’s results in mid-October. You can then use these results to decide whether to apply for a place at St Bernard's High School.

Regardless of whether you intend to apply for a selective or non-selective place at St Bernard’s, 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.

Remember – passing the entrance exam doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a selective place. Many 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 High School below.

What subjects are on the entrance exam?

The CSSE 11 plus exam consists of two papers. Each paper lasts around one hour.

1. English: this consists of reading comprehension and creative writing
2. Maths: questions are based on the Key Stage 2 maths curriculum

How does place allocation work at St Bernard's High School?

Each of the two CSSE papers are worth up to 60 marks (120 in total). Your child’s final marks will be standardised and weighted.

Each school in the CSSE sets its own qualifying score, and this varies from year to year. In 2023, a total standardised score of 303 was the lowest score for which a child was offered a selective place at St Bernard’s. It’s important to note that St Bernard’s only offers selective places to girls who live within the catchment area.

If more than 30 girls who apply for a selective place meet the qualifying score, St Bernard’s applies oversubscription criteria in priority order:

1. Catholic ‘looked after’ and ‘previously looked after’ girls
2. Catholic girls who attend a Catholic feeder school (we’ve included these below)
3. Other Catholic girls
4. Other ‘looked after’ and ‘previously looked after’ girls
5. Catechumens and members of an Eastern Christian Church
6. Girls of other Christian denominations
7. Girls of other faiths, whose membership has been evidenced by a religious leader
8. Any remaining applications

In all of these criteria, preference is given to girls who have a sibling at St Bernard’s or at St Thomas More High School. Girls who live closest to the school (measured by the shortest route) are also prioritised within each category.

What are the feeder schools for St Bernard’s High School?

There are several Catholic primary schools which are feeder schools for St Bernard’s. These are: : Our Lady of Lourdes, Leighon-Sea; St. Helen’s, Westcliff-on-Sea; Sacred Heart, Southend- on-Sea; St. Teresa’s, Rochford; St. George’s, Shoebury; St. Peter’s, Eastwood; St. John Fisher, Prittlewell; Holy Family, South Benfleet; Our Lady of Ransom, Rayleigh and Our Lady of Canvey, Canvey Island.

What is the catchment area for St Bernard’s High School?

The catchment area for St Bernard's High School is predominantly within the Southend area. A map is available in the secondary school admissions booklet on the Southend-on-Sea City Council website.

Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation

The 11 plus is designed to select the most academically able children in the country. 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. 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.