Reddie was educated in Göttingen, Ger., where he was greatly impressed by the progressive educational theories being applied there. In 1883 he joined the radical Fellowship of the New Life in England and decided to establish a school for boys based on socialist principles. Although the school that he established in 1889, Abbotsholme in Derbyshire, was never specifically socialist, its curriculum set a new standard for progressive education. Reddie combined intensive studies and close individual instruction with a program of physical exercise, manual labour, recreation, and arts. Abbotsholme was imitated throughout Europe and was particularly influential in Germany. Abbotsholme, which contained Reddie’s recollections and educational theories, was published in 1900.