Hi can you anyone advise the best independent schools in reading

There are quite a number of indies in Reading and all are a bit different, so asking which are the best is a bit difficult to answer anyway.

However there’s
Abbey (girls, quite selective)
Reading Blue coats (boys, quite selective)
St Joseph’s (mixed, selective but not as much as the others)
Leighton Park, (mixed not selective)

Crosfields is extending to year 11, currently only goes to year 9.

Others that I know less about and some are further out of Reading.
Queen Anne’s
Luckley House
Hemdean
Reddam (was Bearwood)


Bound to be a few others I’ve missed.

Biased sample alert, I know two Queen Anne old girls and both are lovely . Mind you, one of them is of the same vintage as myself- class of '78 - and the other had already left the school when she started; it may have changed a bit since their day, of course.

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DD has 2 friends at Queen Anne's, both lovely girls.

From what I gather it's a great well rounded school (both of these girls are quite sporty)
They love it there

Hi tinkers thanks for quick reply. Thanks for others as well.

Can you please define selective apologise if this is a funny question.

Which one is good among st Joseph's and Leighton schools for my DS.

Why the fees is bit more expensive for Leighton..?

Selective as in they are academically selective in who they take.

Leighton Park is a Quaker School. St Joes is a Catholic School, although they those of other faiths and no faith.

Leighton is more expensive as they allow students to come into school quite early, give them breakfast. They get lunch. After school they stay and do homework with those who are boarding and can have tea there too. I believe the younger ones have to do a couple of after schools activities which I guess are included.

In contrast St Joes is less expensive than other schools. There was some thing about the sisters giving a long cheap lease to the school (I really don’t remember the details), but it does mean some of their overheads were drastically reduced and this is reflected in the fees. (You do have to pay for school lunches and other stuff though).

The grounds/facilities at Leighton Park are great and the longer hours are great for busy working parents. You can even have Day students stay overnight (for a fee) if needed. Their SEN support is supposed to be very good - heard from a very satisfied parent of an autistic lad.
St Joes was struggling for numbers a while back - they dropped the fees and let in boys and it seems to be doing better now. They have just invested quite a lot in music - lots of new pianos and the like.

Neither are particularly academic. I thought you were desperate for a Grammar?

The fees are massively different.

They are totally different schools - you need to work out what your son needs rather than carrying on with this random approach

Hi tinkers that's quite nice information.

What I can infer from selective is they will take children by conducting a test as well for st josephs . Hope that is the correct.

What kind of test will that be..? Similar to the one as reading boys. Where can we get bit more information on that..?

Hi reading mum thanks for the reply. I was exploring options of independent schools if my DS could not get into grammar schools. Does that that neither are academic both the schools means not good for GCSE and A levels..?

Each of the Indies conducts their own entrance tests. Most will be happening in the next few months. You will need to check out each school's website for how to register and what basis they test on. There won't be past papers or published guides like there are for GL or CEM.

Don't you fall in catchment for a decent Wokingham school?

There are some great Indies in the area but you need to be clear on what they offer that you value above what a good local school can provide. This should be a considered decision after proper research. They will publish their GCSEs etc on their websites.