Slough, Berkshire · Slough
St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School
Once a child clears the shared 111 threshold, faith category — not score — decides priority: a child who barely qualifies but is a practising Catholic ranks ahead of a much higher scorer with no faith connection.
Founded in 1897 as a girls' school and co-educational since 1989, St Bernard's is the fourth Slough Consortium school in this project, sharing the same GL Assessment test and 111-point eligibility threshold as Herschel, Langley, and Upton Court. But its own oversubscription criteria are structurally different from its consortium neighbours: a ten-tier faith ladder, running from practising baptised Catholics through other Christian denominations to other faiths and finally 'any other eligible children,' determines priority once a child clears the shared academic threshold. The council's own coordination scheme is explicit that St Bernard's Governing Body, not Slough Borough Council, is the admissions authority. Grammar schools are legally barred from giving siblings any priority — confirmed directly in the consortium's own parent briefing.
Key facts
- Gender
- co-ed
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South East
- Local authority
- Slough
- Established
- 1897
- DfE URN
- 110084
- Website
- https://www.st-bernards.slough.sch.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, for the exam sat September 2026 (September 2027 entry) — the Slough Consortium has announced a change to Quest Assessment from the exam sat in autumn 2027 (affecting September 2028 entry), reported only via secondary sources.partly verified
The reported switch to Quest Assessment for the 2028-entry cycle was only found in secondary-source synthesis, not read from a primary consortium document directly.
- Test format
- The shared Slough Consortium 11+ test used identically by all four schools: two papers of 60-65 minutes each — one covering maths and non-verbal reasoning, one covering verbal skills — all multiple-choice, machine-scored, with no negative marking. Raw scores are age-standardised; only the final standardised score is disclosed to parents.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- 111 on the GL Assessment standardised scale (midpoint 100), confirmed for both the September 2026 and September 2027 entry cycles — the top 35% of that year's sitting cohort. This is an eligibility threshold shared identically across all four Slough Consortium schools, not a ranked admission score.
- Superselective?
- No
Catchment & priority criteria
None. The consortium's own briefing states outright that a family doesn't necessarily have to live in Slough to get a place at a Slough grammar school. Distance to the school is used only as a last-resort tiebreak within an oversubscription category, not as a primary sorting criterion.
- Threshold (not a ranked criterion): a child must score 111 or above on the shared Slough Consortium test to be eligible for consideration at any of the four schools
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Practising baptised Catholic children with a priest's reference
- Other baptised Catholic children without a practising/priest reference
- Baptised or dedicated children of other Christian churches, with a religious leader's reference
- Baptised or dedicated children of other Christian churches, without a reference
- Children of other faiths attending one of several specified Slough Catholic primary schools within a defined pastoral area, with reference
- Children of other faiths attending those same specified primary schools
- Children of other faiths, with a religious leader's reference
- Children of other faiths generally
- Any other eligible children
- Tie-break: priority to the child living closest to the school — one secondary source describes an earlier Pupil Premium tiebreak step, unreconciled against the school's primary policy document, which couldn't be accessed directly during this research
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 77.3 (England average 46.0) | 98.1% (England 45.4%; grade 4+ 99.4%, England 64.8%) | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | — | 75% (school-reported via local press) |
| GCSE cohort 158 students, EBacc entry 96.8% (England 40.5%). A-level (165 students): average grade B, average point score 40.0 (England 35.0), 31.7% of grades were A*-B in facilitating subjects (England 17.5%). Local press coverage (citing the school's own results-day release) separately reported 75% of all A-level grades at A*-B. These figures are cross-confirmed across two independent secondary aggregators but couldn't be independently checked against DfE directly during this research. | |||||
| 2026 | verify with school — not yet published by DfE | verify with school | Not calculated — the nationwide COVID-era gap continues to affect this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| The school's own 2026 results pages exist but were inaccessible during this research. Local press coverage of results day reported strong individual performances (multiple students achieving ten grade 9s) but no aggregate figures. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. This was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — the school's first routine inspection since 2011, having been exempt while previously rated Outstanding. A separate Catholic Schools Inspectorate report, on behalf of the Diocese of Northampton, also rated the school Outstanding in Catholic life and mission, religious education, and collective worship in February 2024 — a different inspectorate on a different cycle, not to be merged with the Ofsted rating.
- Date
- 7-8 November 2023
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/110084
- 2. School's own Year 7 Admissions 2027 Entry page — https://www.st-bernards.slough.sch.uk/2913/year-7-admissions-2027-entry
- 3. School's own In-Year Admissions page — https://www.st-bernards.slough.sch.uk/1424/in-year-admissions
- 4. Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools — Parents' 11+ Examination Briefing, April 2026 — https://www.lgs.slough.sch.uk/attachments/download.asp?file=380&type=pdf
- 5. Slough Borough Council — Scheme for co-ordinating secondary admissions, September 2026-27 — https://www.slough.gov.uk/downloads/file/4968/sbc-scheme-for-co-ordinating-secondary-admissions-2026-27
- 6. Ofsted report, inspected 7-8 November 2023 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50237235
- 7. School's own History page — https://www.st-bernards.slough.sch.uk/367/history-of-st-bernards
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.