The Palmer Primary Academy

Reading School (boys) and Kendrick School (girls) each set their OWN, DIFFERENT entrance test — there is no single shared 'Reading test'. Kendrick School uses GL Assessment: two one-hour multiple-choice papers with a short break, covering four subjects — English (reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation, grammar; KS2 up to start of Year 6), Maths (number, measurement, geometry, statistics; KS2 up to start of Year 6), Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Reading School has used a different format since September 2025 (for 2026 entry onwards), set by FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise, a subsidiary of Reading School): four papers — Adventure Paper (multiple-choice, drawing on KS2 subjects including English, maths, science, geography, history), Beacon Paper (short written-response questions across a similar subject range), Compass Paper (a second multiple-choice paper with a different subject focus), and Discovery Paper (a creative task assessing original thinking and problem-solving — only marked if the child reaches an eligible score on Papers 1-3). Covers KS2 subjects up to the end of the Year 5 programme of study, including Art & Design, Languages, Computing, Design & Technology, Music, PE, Geography, Science and History, alongside English and Maths.