Kendrick Grammar School

About the School

The Kendrick School website gives a good overview of this remarkable school and the superb education on offer.

Kendrick School is an 11-18 selective girls’ school with academy status. It has a local and national reputation for being an outstanding school and has an impressive record of achievement as a centre of excellence for girls’ education. Kendrick has consistently been identified by the Department for Education as being in the top 1% of schools in the country in terms of progress of students between KS2 and KS4, using the Progress 8 measure.

Kendrick is a forward-looking school and grasps the opportunities that present themselves. A love of learning is at the heart of Kendrick with a strong emphasis on high quality teaching. The curriculum is organised to meet the needs of all students and is reviewed regularly. All staff are hardworking and dedicated to the school; teaching staff are specialists and experts in their field and are committed to achieving the best for their students. Students are bright, enthusiastic and curious and have a love of learning.

As an outstanding school, Kendrick seeks to work with other schools and organisations. As part of Kendrick’s Widening Horizons strategic initiative, it actively pursues partnerships with educational schools and businesses in the local area. These associations benefit the students of Kendrick, as well as, students in the neighbouring schools. The school shares good practice and offer opportunities to primary and secondary students in the Reading area. Currently Kendrick is a hub school in the Science Leadership Partnership and provides support and expertise to schools in the teaching of Science.

Kendrick is going through an expansion process, which started in September 2020 when an additional 32 students joined us in Year 7. A further 32 students joined Year 7 in September 2021 and this will continue for the next three years until 2024, making the school four form entry by that date. In the expanded cohort, priority is given to pupil premium students and students in the Reading area, called Priority Area 1 in our admissions process. Their Widening Horizons initiative commits the school to working towards encouraging greater participation of students from local Reading primary schools. To support this work they run a weekly homework club for Year 5 students during Term 2 to Term 6, which provides support for pupil premium children, and their families who wish to apply to Kendrick School.

As well as the formal curriculum, students at Kendrick enjoy a rich and varied extra-curricular education. The House System provides opportunities for healthy competition with numerous annual house events, which are key activities in the school year. Kendrick Student Leaders work energetically and collaboratively with staff to support this vital community element of the school. In addition, the School Council discusses and drives change for the students.

Although it has been a difficult couple of years for education because of the global pandemic, the school community remains strong.