• EDUCATION
  • Alder Bridge Steiner School of course!
  • Home Education There have often been families at Alder Bridge with friends in the local home education community and it is not uncommon for children to come into the school who were formerly home educated, and vice-versa (although not always for the happiest of reasons: some people in the home education community have become disaffected with the school).
    • Berkshire Home Educators is a Yahoo! group for parents home-educating their children to organise events such as going ice skating, visits to various places, and some campaigning.
    • Experience Education is another home-education "support group in the South East of England for families who have chosen to pursue alternative education outside of a traditional classroom environment."
    • Education Otherwise is a national charity promoting and supporting home education. They have a YouTube page with videos about home education.
  • Summerhill The alternative school, established by A. S. Niell; originally in Dresden, as part of an International school called the Neue Schule, from which Neil broke away, eventually re-establishing the school at its present home in Suffolk
• FOOD
  • Suma is a long-established wholefood wholesaler that describes itself as "a radical workers’ cooperative ... specialising in vegetarian, fairly traded, organic, ethical and natural products" with their own brand of food and non-food products. They supply their products through various outlets, including the school, via which one can order online (from which the school gets a proportion of the profits).
  • Tolhurst Organic Produce is a local (Whitchurch-on-Thames) organic farm running a fruit & veg box scheme through local distributors, including Gena at the school (buying through whom generates some income for the school).
  • Truefood Coop is a not-for-profit organisation based in Reading offering organic wholefoods, fresh fruit and vegetables and eco-friendly household products at near wholesale prices, at markets in neighbourhood community centres in Reading.
• SOCIETY/POLITICS
  • Greater Reading Environmental Network: a network of voluntary groups and individuals across Greater Reading who care about sustainability, environment, climate change, conservation and planning issues.
  • Reading Friends of the Earth are the local branch of the British and worldwide confederation of Friends of the Earth groups, working through actions, local lobbying, demonstrations and information campaigns for a better environment for everybody.
  • Co-housing Berkshire is a local group of people who are interested in cohousing: neighbourhoods where people live independently but also foster a spirit of community through a shared house (or facilities), some communal activities and meals, and by managing their own development.
  • Reading LETS (Local Exchange Trading Scheme) allows people to trade goods and services using an alternative to cash that isn't simple one-to-one barter.
  • FreeGLE ("Free Giving Locally Easily") is what used to be Freecycle, a world-wide network of local groups where people can offer or request stuff - for free - that would otherwise go to landfill. In September 2009 many of the British groups broke away from the US-run parent organisation and transferred their existing membership to new groups under the "FreeGLE" banner (the "Freecycle" name is owned by the US parent). To join you have to sign up to Yahoo! groups and then join the local FreeGLE group. The Reading group is big. Offers and Wanteds go by email but there's also a web-based message composer and web-based listing of offers and wants. The FreeGLE cafe is a discussion (email) list for FreeGLE members, which can be quite interesting and wide-ranging.
  • Reading Homebirth Support Group A group "for anyone who has had a homebirth or who is thinking of having one and would like to find out some more information. It is an opportunity to meet other, like minded people and exchange views and experiences in a friendly and supportive environment. Everyone is welcome including partners and babies."
  • RISC The Reading International Solidarity Centre in central Reading comprises
    • a Cafe/Bar serving teas, coffees, beers and ciders (typically European, organic etc) and food (including veggie/vegan, with unique Ethiopian cuisine) in a relaxed but hip atmosphere. They often have live music or DJ/sound systems, generally towards the end of the week and Saturday evenings. There currently seems no way to find out what's on, short of dropping in and looking at posters in the window or asking at the bar, though a new, informative, website is supposd to be in the pipeline.
    • a shop selling fair-trade developing-world crafts, some books and (typically World music) CDs and stuff like chocolate coated nuts
    • a roof garden planted on forest garden principles comprising edible and medicinal plants from around the globe, watered by stored rainwater gathered from the roof pumped by energy generated by solar cells and wind collectors on the chimneys
    • venues for exhibitions, meetings, workshops, parties; education work, arts etc
  • The Rising Sun Arts Centre (in Silver St, off London Road in Reading) has various arts and community events, sometimes a cafe/bar and space which can be rented for events. They run Salsa and Tango classes at varying levels, have cinema evenings, gigs, and do work with people with learning difficulties.
  • Green Drinks a one-evening-a-month get-together for soi-disant "green" folks to meet and chat; held at the Global Cafe on the first Tuesday of each month.
  • Reading Skeptics: a group of rationalists, scientists, humanists, secularists, and other sceptical types meeting for social get-togethers and speaker meetings, loosely allied with the national/international Skeptics in the Pub movement. The Reading groups also has e-mail discussion lists and Facebook and Twitter presences.
  • Braziers Park is an intentional community about 20 minutes drive from Reading, just off the the A4074 to Wallingford & Oxford. (At least one of Alder Bridge's former pupils was from a family living in the Braziers community.) Braziers promotes and/or hosts various events such as October's Apple Day and a Bonfire Night celebration, courses such as Yoga workshops, the new (started 2008) Wood Festival (official site | reviews 1 | 2 of 2009 fest); as well as unconnected, informal events such as a gathering of local families camping in the grounds for a weekend.
• MISC
  • WhereCanWeGo a searchable events directory: free to advertise events on
  • LILIO Web, email, domain etc hosting: LILIO host the School's and this website, and have recently taken over looking after the News Network Anthropospohy (NNA) domains. Their service is generally competent and reasonably priced, though they can be a bit hard/slow to communicate with. They say they also do web design.
  • The University of Reading's Handy Persons page lists tradespeople (and others) who members of staff have used and recommend. Some of it is basically just advertising: one wonders how many people have really hunted around for someone to do "music (oboe) accompaniment"!
  • tilehurst.net is (as the name suggests) principally a directory for Tilehurst but has a lot of entries for Reading generally.
  • Furry Foot The Clown is a Reading-based children's entertainer, who seasoned Readingensians may have seen driving around in his gaily-coloured London Taxi "Betty" (MA). He has a wide range of circus-skills equipment which he can bring to events.
  • Balloon Modelling - David Crofts is another entertainer we see a lot around Reading at events such as Waterfest

Please email me with updates, corrections, links to other resources to list here, etc.