Herschel Grammar School

If you want a friendly, diverse school where your child is genuinely known and still pushed hard, Herschel is one to look at. It is a co-educational grammar in Slough, serving the town and the surrounding area, taking girls and boys from 11 to 18, with entry by selective assessment. It carries a name children clearly enjoy: the school is named after William Herschel, the astronomer who discovered Uranus while living in Slough. It opened in the early 1950s, settled onto its present site on Northampton Avenue in 1958, and today sits within the Schelwood Trust alongside the nearby Beechwood School.

What the school keeps returning to is a warm atmosphere built on mutual trust, high standards and a real commitment to each individual child. Beyond results, it talks about pupils who take responsibility for their own behaviour and show strong empathy, leaving as confident, active young citizens. The head writes that the school's success rests on a genuine partnership between governors, staff, pupils and parents, all sharing high hopes for every child, and that picture comes through in the small things as much as the academic ones. There is a full life beyond lessons too, with a house system, a student podcast and culture and empathy weeks among the things that mark the year.

Herschel suits a child who will do well somewhere academically ambitious but still kind, where being looked after counts for as much as the grades. It is led by headteacher Joanne Rockall, and a child who joins finds a place that wants to know them as a person, not just a name on a register.