moving to Reading (Berkshire)

[jinna]

Hi we are looking to move to Reading (Berkshire) - probably the lower earley area. Anyone live in this area and would be able to inform me about the good schools (nursery and infant), etc. I have gained some information from the web site upmystreet.com but it would be great to hear from people who actually have experience of the area. Thanks in advance.

[fairy]

Having recently moved from Reading, can I ask why you are moving there, and where from?

Lower Early is outside the main town so I don't have much experience of it other than we used to go to Jo Jingles there which was excellent. For schools and nurseries you could try the Ofsted reports. Sorry can't be of anymore help!

[jinna]

We are moving as my husband works in Reading. We are moving from essex. Other areas we are considering are Tilehurst, Sindlesham, Wokingham and Braknell (close to the m4 area) - anyone with info about these areas would be helpful.

[fairy]

Wokingham is nice, I'd prefer that to Reading, in my opinion!

[Twink]

Jinna, which side of town will your husband be based ? Traffic in and around Reading seems to have increased exponentially over the last few years and looks set to get worse with the new offices being built near the M4. It'd would certainly be worth trying to avoid any commuting journeys which cross it.
Lower Earley can be horrendous to get in/out of during rush hour (I seem to remember hearing that it's effectively the biggest private housing estate in Western Europe) and is particularly bad after storms as one of the main access roads floods badly.
Wokingham is nice, Caversham to the north of Reading is nice but pricey and Tilehurst very much depends on which bit.

[Alibubbles]

I used to live in Wokingham and went to school there - The Holt, but that's when it was a grammar school, though a very different grammar school to the one I'd been to previously. I didn't like it very much but I loved school (if that makes sense) it was more like a comprehensive, whereas I'd been at a very traditional school.
The villages are very nice, Hurst, Binfield, etc. Bracknell was a new town and a bit tatty now. We rented there till the parents found a house.

[jinna]

Thanks twink for your info about lower earley and the traffic problem. Do you have any info about the local schools or other info - anything would be helpful as we will be totally new to this area.
thanks

[Twink]

Sorry no, it's only childless friends that live there, we're a bit further west in rural Berks. But I've just tried doing a search on 'lower earley' on Google and quite a lot of info (and a lot of rubbish !) comes up, some of it may help.

[jinna]

hi ks
thanks for the info about lower earley - we are looking at some other areas e.g wokingham, sindlesham - it is very difficult when you have little knowledge of the area. Do you know if the book you mentioned is published each year.