11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi All,
We are currently trying to decide on a list of preference for our desired grammar schools.

Our first choice was Reading grammar boarding as we live in Burnham and are out of catchment. However, my DS only qualified for Bucks and Slough but not Reading.

So we are in a bit of a dilemma now. Do we put RGSHW boarding on top or St Bernard's grammar( he is Catholic).
We visited RGS twice but I'm just not fully sold on it and this is purely down to gut feeling.

Has anybody had any experience?
Please help!!

Why not Burnham Grammar as it's local? I don't really know the other two schools, other than to know that they are very different. Only you can decide, we don't know your son, but if I had grammar school (s) on my doorstep i wouldn't be even thinking of doing the journey from Burnham to High Wycombe. Maybe if you have specific questions people will be able to answer?

scary mum wrote: I had grammar school (s) on my doorstep i wouldn't be even thinking of doing the journey from Burnham to High Wycombe.

Iva wrote: Do we put RGSHW boarding on top or St Bernard's grammar( he is Catholic).
We visited RGS twice but I'm just not fully sold on it and this is purely down to gut feeling.

You and scary have answered your question. Easy. St Bernards. Gut feeling is everything.

Yes, you are probably right.

I was just after some tangible experience if anybody has children in any of these schools.

Oh decisions, decisions!!

Burnham Grammar School is a great school, why aren't you looking there? Plus he would be able to fully participate in school life (and the social life that comes with it) without you having to taxi drive.

I have two friends whose children are st Bernards. It's a very supportive school, they both enjoy it, and comment that the pastoral care is excellent and if you are Catholic it's an understandable draw. (They seem very tolerant of non Catholics, but every single open event is opened with the reminder of their Catholicism!)

However: the traffic around Langley and the a4 is rubbish, both my friends' children are within walking distance which was a big plus for them, and I'm not sure what the minibus/taxi options are like.
You could try the train if the station is near at your end, though it's a good 15 min walk from Slough station.

Thank you Aethel.
Yes, we were thinking of taking the train from Burnham to Slough and then walk to school.

Might be a good idea to do a trial run on the train over half-term before you submit your CAF form! We will be doing exactly that tomorrow in the other direction (Langley-Burnham).