Reading School

What a start. Our Year 10 cricketers opened their Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup campaign with a commanding win against Garth Hill College on the Close, chasing down their total of 51 in just 11 overs 🏏

The Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup is the first-ever national hardball cricket competition run exclusively for state schools by the MCC Foundation, with the final at Lord's Cricket Ground in September 2026.

Well done to all involved, and good luck to Garth Hill College in the rest of their campaign.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to Speech Day on Tuesday 23rd June 2026, a special whole-school celebration recognising the achievements, effort and commitment of our students across the year.

📚 Junior Celebration (Year 7–10): 09:00–12:00
🎓 Senior Celebration (Year 13 & Class of 2025): 13:30–17:30

Both events will include prize-giving, performances, speeches and opportunities to celebrate student success as a school community.

We are delighted by the response so far, with over 450 bookings for each ceremony. Please note that registration closes at 16:00 on Monday to allow us to finalise arrangements.

If you haven’t yet registered, please RSVP here:
Junior Celebration: https://alumni.reading-school.co.uk/events/view/speech-day-2026-junior-celebration-tuesday-23rd-june-2026
Senior Celebration: https://alumni.reading-school.co.uk/events/view/speech-day-2026-senior-celebration-tuesday-23rd-june-2026

Attendance is limited to two tickets per student and no additional tickets are available due to capacity limits.

We look forward to celebrating together and making this a memorable day for our students and families.

There are some exciting events coming up this term! As well as the ever-popular Speech Day, don’t forget another highlight happening in the same week:

🏏 Annual Fixture: Reading School vs Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)
📅 Friday 26th June 2026
📍 School Field, Reading School

A fantastic summer tradition and a brilliant afternoon of cricket for our school community. The first session begins at 12:30pm during the school day, with students, parents and ORs especially welcome from 15:15 onwards to enjoy the match from the boundary. From 17:30pm, we will also be running friendly taster cricket activities for anyone who would like to take part, suitable for all ages and abilities.

External caterers will be on site throughout the afternoon, offering pizza and ice cream to round off a relaxed summer event. The forecast is looking promising, so why not bring a blanket, settle in and enjoy a wonderful afternoon of cricket?

RSVP now : https://alumni.reading-school.co.uk/events/view/reading-school-v-mcc-annual-fixture-2026-friday-26th-june-2026

The task was to determine whether a pharmacist's coffee had been tampered with. Reading School Year 12 chemists had to analyse caffeine content, work against the clock, and present their findings as evidence.

That's the Royal Society of Chemistry's Schools' Analyst Competition 2026 in a sentence and it's one of those days where chemistry stops being a subject and starts being something else.

The regional winner will be announced in due course - fingers crossed🤞

Tonight, Year 7 camp out on the school field for the Festival of Belonging - the closing event of Belonging Week.

Twenty tipis with the School behind them, as it has been for the last 156 years, watching another year group settle in.

It looks like they all belong.

The penultimate day...this is it.

From this afternoon, come rain or shine, all Year 7 students will camp out on the grounds as part of the annual Festival of Belonging - the final event of Belonging Week.

This will be the fifth year running where students gather together on home ground to celebrate what Belonging Week has been all about.

With thanks to our long-term partners Dream Domes.

This week, Reading School went in several directions at once during Belonging Week.

While Year 9s went to Copenhagen, How Stean Gorge, and Devon, the whole of Year 7 went to the Science Museum in London.

Each year, Belonging Week takes nearly every year group off-site at the start of the summer term. The activities vary. The point stays the same: to give students time together away from lessons, timetables and the usual rhythms of school.

What they found this week, in museums, gorges, beaches and foreign cities can't be captured in a post...but the photographs will give you an idea.

Also this week, other Year 9 students headed to How Stean Gorge in Yorkshire for a rather different kind of trip.

After an early start, the group went straight into caving, gorge walking, and Via Ferrata - a half-day high-wire experience on a climbing route built directly into the limestone cliffs of How Stean Gorge.

The skills students develop during Belonging Week, whether navigating unfamiliar terrain, coaching a younger child, or stepping up in front of his peers, are the same skills that will define him long after his exam results are forgotten.

Some of our Year 9s are in Copenhagen for Belonging Week.

Yesterday there was frisbee in the King's Gardens, an introduction to Klask (a Danish board game best described as magnetic air hockey, and apparently more competitive than it looks), and an evening in a board games café that the staff described as featuring "furious competition."

This morning they woke up to this.

Belonging Week takes year groups off-site for a few days during the summer term - less about the destination, more about what happens between students when the classroom isn't the backdrop.