page_title: Reading, Berkshire
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Reading, Berkshire / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the university's main Whiteknights campus. The principal building to be seen is the HumSS building, with a sliver of University admin building visible to the right.
context_page_description: Reading is a large, historic market town in Berkshire, South East England. Situated in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Kennet, it is on the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway. Reading is 70 miles east of Bristol, 25 miles south of Oxford, 40 miles west of London, 14 miles north of Basingstoke, 12 miles south-west of Maidenhead and 15 miles east of Newbury.
  The first evidence for Reading as a town dates from the 8th century. It was an important trading and ecclesiastical centre in the medieval period, as the site of Reading Abbey, one of the largest and richest monasteries of medieval England with strong royal connections, of which the 12th-century abbey gateway and significant ancient ruins remain. By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tax returns show that Reading was the 10th largest town in England when measured by taxable wealth. The medieval town was seriously affected by the English Civil War, with a major siege and loss of trade, and played a pivotal role in the Revolution of 1688, with that revolution's only significant military action fought on the streets of the town.
context_section_description: Reading School, founded in 1125, is the 16th oldest school in England. There are six other state secondary schools and 38 state primary schools within the borough, together with a number of private and independent schools and nurseries. Alfred Sutton Boys' School closed in the mid-1980s.
  Reading College has provided further education in Reading since 1955, with over 8,500 local learners on over 900 courses.
  The University of Reading was established in 1892 as an affiliate of Oxford University. It moved to its London Road Campus in 1904 and to its new Whiteknights Campus in 1947. It took over the Bulmershe College of Higher Education, a teacher training college, in 1989, becoming Bulmershe Court Campus. The Henley Management College, situated in Buckinghamshire and about 10 miles (16 km) from Reading, was taken over in 2008, becoming Greenlands Campus. The University of West London maintains a presence in the town for its higher education students, principally in nursing, but has now divested itself of its previous ownership of Reading College and its further education students.
  English language schools in Reading include Gateway Languages, the English Language Centre, ELC London Street and Eurospeak Language School.
caption: Part of the University of Reading's main Whiteknights Campus
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