St. Gabriel’s School 11 Plus (11+) Entrance Exam Information – Key Details
Table of Contents
Introduction
St. Gabriel’s School is an independent day school located at Sandleford Priory in Sandleford, two miles (3 km) south of Newbury. It was founded in 1929 in Mill Hill and was re-located to its current site by an order of Anglican nuns in 1948. It came under the authority of a Board of Governors in 1974.
The Senior School offers girls an education centered on the real world yet with idealism at its heart. The formal curriculum is broad and balanced with a wide range of subjects at GCSE and A level, including English, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, computing, along with two modern foreign languages (French and Mandarin Chinese).
With the aim to improve their overall well-being, PSHE and Physical Education are also taught at St Gabriel’s. Girls benefit greatly from the extensive PSHE programme, which includes career education and skills for lifelong intellectual curiosity.
The school’s ethos is centered on developing girls’ talents to the fullest within a happy and secure, supportive and caring environment. It is reinforced by an outstanding system of pastoral care which ensures that strong bonds between pupils, parents, teachers and administrative staff are formed and maintained.
Over 60 clubs and subject clinics are available within the co-curricular programme, including football, chess, Robotics Club and Jazz Band, debating and curriculum clinics. The equestrian team welcomes everyone who has a horse or pony.
At St. Gabriel’s, girls are prepared for success both in the classroom and through the exciting range of co-curricular activities, so that they can face the world with assurance, grit and a love of learning in their adulthood.
The school, through providing full support, aims for every pupil to exceed their expectations, whether that is achieving an A* rather than an A, or a B rather than a C. In this way, the school ensures that the entire community remains true to its motto: Your route to success.
11 Plus (11+) Exam Information for St. Gabriel’s School
Address: Sandleford Priory Newbury Berkshire RG20 9BD
County: Newbury
Admissions info: admissions@stgabriels.co.uk or 01635 555680
School Type: Independent day school for girls
Number of Students: 500 (approx.)
Open day: October, March
11+ Exam Date: November of Year 6
11+ Exam Type / Board: School’s own
Open Events for St. Gabriel’s School 11 Plus (11+) Entry
St. Gabriel’s holds a number of open events that you can attend throughout the year. You can also arrange an individual visit at a suitable time.
Open Mornings occur in the form of a pupil-guided tour of the school. They offer a perfect introduction to St. Gabriel’s on a normal school day and include a talk by the Principal, Mr. Ricki Smith, and meeting up with members of the Senior Leadership Team and academic staff over refreshments.
You can reserve your place by contacting the Admissions Manager, Mrs. Jane Benney at admissions@stgabriels.co.uk or by completing the online booking form for the Open Morning you wish to attend.
St. Gabriel’s School 11 Plus (11+) Admissions
The admissions process comprises initial enquiry, attendance at an Open Event, individual visit, registration, Taster Day, entrance exams, an offer of a place, acceptance and Induction Day.
Girls registered for entry to Year 7 are invited to Candidates’ Day set in October. It aims to give the girls a taste of life in the Senior School, prior to taking the entrance examinations.
All pupils are required to sit entrance examinations in November prior to their year of entry. Your daughter will sit papers in English, mathematics, Science and Verbal Reasoning. A short and informal interview with the Principal and Vice-Principal is also included in the assessment process.
Offers are made after a successful performance in the entrance examinations together with a satisfactory confidential progress report from your daughter’s current school. The registration fee is a total of £500 (refundable).
Your daughter is welcome to have a further taster day once she accepts her place.
St. Gabriel’s School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Format
The St. Gabriel’s School 11+ examinations comprise an English paper, which assesses reading, comprehension and writing skills, and a mathematics paper, designed to measure your child’s problem solving and arithmetic skills.
The Verbal Reasoning paper is designed to test your daughter’s understanding, awareness and aptitude with word-based problems, along with logical thinking, use of English language and vocabulary. There is also a Science paper.
Please see below for further details and recommendations on how to prepare for the St Gabriel’s School 11+ entrance examinations.
How to Prepare for the St. Gabriel’s School 11 Plus (11+) Exam
A competitive and selective entrance exam requires preparation. Our practice tests are an appropriate addition to the preparation process, offering familiarisation with the exam layout and the types of questions your daughter will encounter on exam day.
They are thoroughly researched and up to date, helping tens of thousands of students prepare for entrance exams every year.
Our practice tests help identify the weaker areas in your daughter’s knowledge base that require additional work. By distinguishing her strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to devise a study plan that focuses on studying little and often.
A structured approach of that kind will help your daughter learn to answer questions quickly, efficiently and effectively, gaining a significant advantage over peers as a result.
Please see below our picks for a successful Sydenham High School 11+ Entrance exam preparation.
St. Gabriel’s School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Practice Papers
English
To help improve your daughter’s comprehension and writing skills (including spelling, vocabulary and inference) ahead of the St. Gabriel’s School 11+ English exam, we recommend that you make use of the following packs:
Comprehension
11+ Complete Comprehension Guide
Writing
Mathematics
To further develop your daughter’s mathematical skills within an examination context ahead of the St. Gabriel’s School 11+ maths test, we strongly suggest that you make use of the following packs:
Verbal Reasoning
The following packs will help prepare your daughter for the St. Gabriel’s School 11+ Verbal Reasoning paper:
Verbal Reasoning: Skill specific practice
The following topic specific packs will help your daughter prepare for the various question types that could come up in the St. Gabriel’s School 11+ Verbal Reasoning exam:
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Anagrams
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Analogies
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Compound Words
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Embedded Words
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Form a Word
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Insert a Letter
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Letter Calculations
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Letter Sequences
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Move a Letter
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Number Calculations
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Number Sequences
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Shuffled Sentences
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Synonyms
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Word Completion
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Word Match
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Word Opposites
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Word Puzzles
11+ Verbal Reasoning: Word Relationships
Science
To develop your daughters’s skills in Science, we highly recommend the following packs:
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Our practice tests aim to show what sort of questions were included in St Gabriel’s School 11+ exam past papers. The information provided about St. Gabriel’s School was believed to be correct at the time of publishing. However, please be aware of future changes. We advise you to contact the school directly if you are unsure of anything. School contact details are provided within the post.
