News & Updates

4th April 2026

The Institute of Education at the University of London has a collection of ICL-CES books.

IoE UoL library books next to each other — ICL-CES books at the Institute of Education library. Source: Institute of Education, University of London.

From top to bottom.

16- pupil book 3, first edition, Dec 1977 reprint.
16- pupil book 1, first edition, original 1971 print.
Information Retrieval in Schools (IRIS), first edition/printing April 1976. Hardback. My copy of this is also a first edition but is softback. Like my copy, this has an errata page fixed at the front of the book, also dated April 1976.
16- pupil book 2, first edition, March 73 reprint.
16- teachers' guide book 3, first edition, November 1981 reprint
IRIS teachers' guide/supplement. 24 loose sheets to aid teaching. (First time I'd seen this!)
16- teachers' guide book 1, second edition. Printed August 1980. (281 pages)
16- teachers' guide book 1, first edition, second printing July 1972. In a lever-arched file. The National Archive of Educational Computing also has this, and I have borrowed it for scanning.

3rd April 2026

As mentioned below, I recently visited Richard Millwood at the National Archive of Educational Computing. The archive has several ICL-CES items, and there could be more to unearth. In due course I'll write about them on here. Here's a set of the first edition pupil books for the -16 programme. Books 1 and 2 are first printings of the first edition. Note that the number of punch cards to identify book 2 is incorrect. This was fixed in later printings.

NAEC Book 2 first-print misprint — ICL-CES Book 2 first edition, first printing misprint. Source: National Archive of Educational Computing (NAEC).

If we look at the side-aspect - note that book 3 indicates that it is book 3 due to the number of highlighted punch cards. This would make it easier to identify on the shelf of a busy classroom. However, note that book 1 and book 2 have the entire row filled in. Not very useful - helpful. I have a later book 2 printing and they did indeed fix this in later reprintings. I don't know for sure whether this is the case with book 1, as my own book 1 is also a first printing.

NAEC Book 2 first-print misprint spines — ICL-CES Book 2 first edition spine view, first printing misprint. Source: National Archive of Educational Computing (NAEC).

Stored as a PDF is the publishing details for the book 1, 2 and 3 that are stored in the archive. Publishing details PDF (Source: NAEC)

The archive also holds the second editions of book 1 and 2, of course changed colour to make them even more distinguishable. Remember, there was no second edition of book 3.

NAEC ICL pupils books next to each other — ICL-CES pupil books side-by-side. Source: National Archive of Educational Computing (NAEC).

There was also some teachers materials in the archive. More on those another day.

2nd April 2026

A big update. I've finally found the time to move the site off Google Sites, and now I'm using Eleventy to generate the site from a much more manageable source - markdown documents. I never appreciated the interest that the material would bring. Initially the Google Site was just for my own use to collect my thoughts, but this change will make the site easier to work with in the longer run.

Also, after a few months of planning, I visited London to accomplish two tasks.

Visit Richard Millwood and the National Archive of Educational Computing.
To visit the Institute of Education's library, to view some items there. There was a lot of new material that I need further time to collate, and a further update will appear here in due course.

22nd November 2025

Some good fortune allowed me to obtain a collection of ICL-CES books, including some first printings.

They all looked to be in excellent shape, and included a First Edition Book 1 and also Information Retrieval in Schools, that I knew existed, but hadn't seen before.

I got in touch with the bookshop. It was a few months since they'd received them, so I thought I might have missed out. First Edition Book 3 had sold, but the rest were still in stock, as well as a few other interesting closely-related books.

A deal was done and the books were with me the very next day.

ICL-CES books from Northamptonshire bookshop — Collection of ICL-CES books acquired from a Northamptonshire bookshop.

The books acquired:

Book 1, First Edition, first printing September 1971 (I didn't have a first ed up until now, and a bonus that it's also a first printing)
Book 2, First Edition, first printing September 1972
Book 1, Second Edition, third printing, October 1979. This had a fold of paper in, of one page from the intro to CES docs. It's a puzzle as to why this was in the second edition, as the writing relates to the first editions. However it does have Kingsthorpe High, Northampton underlined, and in the very same book in the acknowledgements section Mary Simpson and Wellingborough School are underlined. A possible connection for me to ponder over. (The bookshop was in Northampton).
Book 2, Second Edition, third printing August 1980
Information Retrieval in Schools, First Edition April 1976. Great to finally get this! Interestingly this has an officially released errata stuck into the inside front cover, and the issues have been ticked off in pencil.

It wasn't worthy of an update at the time, but another book I've had for a while now is the ICL print of Computers, Information and You, First Edition August 1983. This book (aimed at primary-aged children is the only book that was published by both ICL and then later Acorn once they took over the project.

Check out the Books page for more information.

15th December 2024

Colin Monson interview from June 2024.