How to prepare for the Reddam House Berkshire 11+

Exam format not yet verified. We have not confirmed this school's exam board or paper format from an official source. Where this guide describes the test, treat it as a working assumption and check the school's admissions page before relying on it.

The exam at a glance

For Year 7 entry to Reddam House Berkshire, the entrance assessment uses the school’s own process and, for 2028 entry, the tested content is a GL-style paper covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. That means children need balanced preparation across all four areas rather than focusing only on English and maths.

The school’s admissions information explains that Year 7 entry involves an entrance assessment and an interview with the Head of School. The school also says that places are offered after a child has attended an assessment day and after references have been received from the current school.

The exact delivery method for the test day is not clearly stated on the admissions page we found, so parents should check directly with the school whether the assessment is paper-based, computer-based or a mixture. In practice, families should prepare for standard timed sections and help their child get used to switching calmly between subjects.

What the day usually looks like at an independent school such as this is: arrival and registration, the assessment itself, and for Year 7 applicants an interview stage. Some children will also be applying for scholarships, which have their own separate deadline and assessment date in the school’s published timeline.

Board/process: school’s own entrance process
Test format: GL-style paper across four subjects
Subjects: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Interview: Yes, from Year 7 there is also an interview with the Head of School
Delivery: not confirmed on the admissions page we found

Registration and key dates

Reddam House Berkshire handles admissions directly through the school rather than through a local authority 11+ portal. The admissions process page says parents should complete an online registration form, after which the child is invited to attend a taster day and assessment day. The school also says references are requested from the child’s current school before an offer is made.

For families applying for September 2028 entry, the school has not yet published the full Year 7 2028 timeline on the page we found. However, the school’s admissions page does publish the most recent Year 7 timeline, which gives a helpful guide to typical timing.

Application deadline: for the published Year 7 2027 cycle, the deadline is 30 October.
Entrance assessments: for the published Year 7 2027 cycle, these are on 27 November.
Scholarship application deadline: 27 November for the published Year 7 2027 cycle.
Scholarship assessments: 8 January for the published Year 7 2027 cycle.

For 2028 entry, that means parents should expect registration to open through the school and should watch for deadlines in the autumn of Year 6, with the entrance assessment typically in late November, unless the school announces otherwise. If you want updates as soon as dates are confirmed, you can use Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=reddam-house-berkshire.

Before submitting the form, it is sensible to have the basics ready: your child’s current school details, contact information, and any documents the school requests as part of registration. Because document requirements are not listed in detail on the page we found, check the online form carefully when applications open.

For a quick overview page that tracks format and dates, see The Reddam House Berkshire 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/reddam-house-berkshire.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Reddam House Berkshire is an independent, co-educational school, so entry is not run through the grammar-school 11+ allocation system and we found no published catchment area on the admissions page. In other words, parents should not assume there is a strict distance rule unless the school states one for a particular year group.

The school says it offers entry assessment from Year 3 onwards and that for Year 7 there is also an interview with the Head of School. The admissions process page further explains that places are offered after the child has attended a taster day and assessment day and once references from the current school have been received.

We did not find a published Year 7 intake number or a published oversubscription ranking system on the admissions page we reviewed, so it is best to treat admissions as selective but school-led rather than rule-based in the way a state grammar allocation would be.

Fees are relevant for independent-school applications. The school’s published fees page lists Year 7 to Year 13 fees at £8,545 per term for 2026–27. As always, families should check the latest fee schedule before applying, as schools can update fees annually.

If your child may also apply for a scholarship, note that the school publishes a separate scholarship deadline and scholarship assessment date within its Year 7 timeline. That is worth checking early, because scholarship deadlines can fall before or alongside the main admissions process.

A month-by-month preparation plan

The aim for Reddam House Berkshire is calm, broad preparation across four subjects, with enough time to build confidence before the late-autumn assessment. For most children, steady work in Year 5 and the start of Year 6 is far better than a last-minute rush.

January to March in Year 5

Keep it light and regular: around 1 to 1.5 hours a week split across two or three short sessions. Focus on core arithmetic, reading comprehension, vocabulary building and gentle reasoning practice. At this stage, accuracy matters more than speed.

Read widely and discuss vocabulary in context.
Practise times tables and written methods until they feel secure.
Introduce short Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning tasks without timing pressure.

April to June in Year 5

Increase to around 2 hours a week. Start rotating all four subjects every fortnight so none are neglected. This is a good point to spot weaker areas: for example, children who read well may still struggle with spelling and punctuation, and strong mathematicians may be new to formal reasoning questions.

Begin short comprehension exercises.
Cover core maths topics little and often.
Practise recognising common reasoning patterns.

July to August before Year 6

This is the best time to build familiarity without school pressure. Aim for 2 to 3 hours a week, but keep sessions short. Start doing mixed practice so your child gets used to changing gear between English, maths and reasoning.

Do one longer comprehension each week.
Use short mixed maths sets on number, fractions, measures and problem solving.
Introduce timed mini-sections for reasoning, just 5 to 10 minutes at first.

September in Year 6

Now the preparation becomes more exam-shaped. Aim for 3 hours a week. Start timed work properly, but only in manageable chunks. Review mistakes carefully and keep an error notebook: not just what went wrong, but why.

Do at least one timed section each week.
Keep one untimed session for teaching and consolidation.
Continue reading daily for vocabulary and comprehension stamina.

October in Year 6

Increase to 3 to 4 hours a week if your child is coping well. This is the point to begin fuller practice papers, though not too many. One paper or one half-paper at the weekend, then review it properly over the next few days, is usually enough.

Practise timing strategy: when to move on, when to guess, when to check.
Keep maths arithmetic fluent so problem-solving time is freed up.
Use vocabulary revision little and often.

November up to the exam

Taper rather than cram. In the first part of the month, one final round of timed practice is useful. In the last week, reduce workload and focus on confidence, sleep and routine. A tired child rarely shows their best on an assessment day.

Use short refreshers rather than heavy new work.
Review common errors and favourite question types.
Keep the final two or three days calm.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For a GL-style maths paper, children usually need secure number skills first and problem solving second. Practise arithmetic fluency, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio foundations, measures, time, area and perimeter, and multi-step word problems. The key is to recognise what a question is asking quickly, then set it out carefully.

Good practice includes short daily arithmetic, one or two word problems at a time, and regular revision of topics that often slip, such as fractions or time. When you start timed work, encourage your child to skip and return if a question is holding them up.

English

English preparation should cover comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and spelling. For independent-school assessments, comprehension often rewards children who read carefully, infer sensibly and support answers from the text rather than guessing.

Useful practice includes reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, discussing unfamiliar words, summarising paragraphs, and revising sentence structure and punctuation. If your child writes too much or too little in comprehension, practise answering in the exact level of detail needed.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning tests patterns in language. Common GL-style tasks can include letter codes, word relationships, sequences, hidden words, pairs, and vocabulary-based logic. The challenge is often less about school English and more about learning the question types and working accurately under time pressure.

Practise one question type at a time before mixing them. Build vocabulary steadily, because a strong word bank helps in many verbal tasks. Once methods are secure, use short timed drills to improve speed.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning involves shapes, patterns, rotations, reflections, codes and visual sequences. Many children improve quickly once they learn how patterns are built, so this is a good subject for regular method-based practice.

Start by teaching pattern families slowly: movement, rotation, reflection, shading, shape count and symmetry. Then mix question types so your child learns to identify the rule quickly. Encourage them to look for more than one change happening at once.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used sparingly and reviewed well. A common mistake is to do too many papers and learn very little from them. For Reddam House Berkshire, because the assessment covers four subjects, it is better to keep practice balanced and avoid over-focusing on only one area.

Start with untimed or lightly timed work to teach method. Move to timed sections once your child understands the question types. Closer to the exam, use occasional mixed papers to build stamina and switching skills.

First, identify weak areas by subject.
Then teach the method behind those errors.
Only after that, repeat a similar question type under time pressure.

For free school-specific practice, use Free Reddam House Berkshire practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers): /schools/reddam-house-berkshire-mock-tests.

For the school overview page, use The Reddam House Berkshire 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/reddam-house-berkshire.

And for reminders when dates are updated, use Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=reddam-house-berkshire.

If you book a mock exam elsewhere, use it as a confidence-building rehearsal, not as a verdict on your child. One mock can be very helpful for timing and nerves; several are rarely necessary unless your child genuinely benefits from that style of preparation.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Aim for a normal breakfast, comfortable uniform or clothing if the school specifies it, and plenty of time to travel without rushing. Children usually perform better when the day feels predictable.

Check the start time, arrival instructions and what to bring the day before.
Pack any requested stationery and water if the school allows it.
Avoid last-minute cramming in the car.

For the interview element, remind your child that they do not need polished speeches. The school is likely to be looking for a child who can talk naturally about their interests, current school life and why they would like to join.

During the test itself, the most useful reminders are simple: listen carefully, keep an eye on time, move on if stuck, and reset between sections. If one part feels hard, that does not mean the whole assessment has gone badly.

After the assessment, try not to interrogate your child question by question. A calm, ordinary rest of the day usually helps far more than a post-mortem.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

Because Reddam House Berkshire is an independent school, the process after the assessment is different from state-school National Offer Day. The admissions page says that once a child has attended a taster day and assessment day, and once references have been received from the current school, the school will make an offer if a place is available and the application is successful.

We did not find a published score threshold, pass mark or ranking list, and independent schools do not always publish these. If you want to understand how your child’s application will be considered, the best step is to ask the admissions team directly.

If your child is not offered a place, ask politely whether a waiting list operates and whether there is any review or reconsideration process. Formal statutory admission appeals apply to state schools; independent schools may have their own complaints or review procedures instead, so it is important to check the school’s terms and admissions information rather than assuming a grammar-style appeals process.

For scholarships, note that the school publishes a separate scholarship assessment date in its Year 7 timeline, so any scholarship decision may run on a slightly different timetable from the main admissions decision.

What has changed recently

The clearest recent published update we found is the school’s current Year 7 admissions timeline on its admissions process page: for the Year 7 2027 cycle, it lists an application deadline of 30 October, entrance assessments on 27 November, a scholarship application deadline of 27 November and scholarship assessments on 8 January. We did not find a separately announced change to catchment, published places or exam board on the official pages reviewed.

There is also a potential discrepancy to note internally: the format in our directory (not yet verified with the school) block states that for 2028 entry the school uses its own paper in a GL-style format across Maths, English, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The official admissions page we found confirms the admissions process and interview stage, but does not spell out the four tested subjects in that level of detail on-page, so that point should continue to be monitored against future school updates.

Frequently asked questions

Does Reddam House Berkshire use the local authority 11+ process?

No. It is an independent school and applications are handled directly by the school through its own admissions process.

What subjects should my child prepare for?

For 2028 entry, prepare for Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, with balanced practice across all four.

Is there an interview for Year 7 entry?

Yes. The school says that from Year 7 there is also an interview with the Head of School.

Does Reddam House Berkshire have a catchment area?

We did not find a published catchment area on the admissions page reviewed. As an independent school, it does not operate like a state grammar-school catchment system.

When is the Reddam House Berkshire entrance assessment usually held?

The most recently published Year 7 timeline shows entrance assessments in late November, with 27 November listed for the 2027 cycle. Parents applying for 2028 entry should check the school page for the confirmed date.

Are scholarships available at Year 7?

The school’s published Year 7 timeline includes a scholarship application deadline and a separate scholarship assessment date, so families interested in scholarships should check those dates early.

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Sources

Reddam House Berkshire – Admissions Process: Admissions are handled directly by the school; parents complete an online registration form; children are invited to a taster day and assessment day; references are requested from the current school; from Year 7 there is also an interview with the Head of School; the published Year 7 2027 timeline l
Reddam House Berkshire – Fees: Year 7 to Year 13 fees are £8,545 per term for 2026–27.
Reddam House Berkshire – School website: Reddam House Berkshire is an independent co-educational school in Sindlesham, Wokingham for children aged 3 months to 18 years.

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Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.