British Preparatory Schools E-Books: Organization

Britsh school uniform
Figure 1.--Plastic lego blocks are popular with many prep school children, especially the boys. This school had a lego block table with high sides where the blocks could be kept with out falling out all over the floor.

We have sought to create photo books depicting life at British prepasratory schools. As the schools we visited phrased it--fly on the wall photography. We found the schools we visited and the charming children we met fascinating. The result was a illuminating series of images on school life. Our first school book showcaseing the photography was a hard-back book about preparatory schools. We published that in 1990 before the internet had taken off. Unfortunately the economics of publishing permitted us to inclide only a few color plates. We have since decided to publish additional books as eBooks. This is in part because it allows us to publish all the images in color. We are organizing our British Preparatory Schools E-book into separate volumes of E-Books. All are based on a series of visits to the schools in the 1970s 80s, and 90s. The photographs we took provide a historical view of the operation of the schools all over the United Kingdom. Our goal is to create separate volumes of about 200-250 pages each. To published actual books of this size in color would require us to charge over $100 per volume. Doing the books as eBooks allows us to bring the books to you at a more reasonable price. We hope you will find the series of interest.

Boys' Preparatory Schools: Printed Hardcover Book

Apertures Press has published a 125-page hard cover book depicting every-day life at British preparatory schools. The book includes about 250 never before published black and white and color photographs illustrating school life during the 1980s. There are also many older photographs to illustrate a brief historical essay providing background information on these splendid little schools. Accompanying the photographs are poems, essays, and quips by the children themselves. Preparatory schools in Britain prepare elementary-age children for the country's elite public (private) secondary schools. themselves describing their school experiences. Most of the photographs were taken in England and Scotland, but British preparatory schools in Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ulster are also shown.

British eBook, Volume I

Here we have an E-Book which as it is not printed we can fully utilize the color photographs we took during our school visits. This volume is the topical treatment of the British Preparatory School with details on the organization, program, and the people involved. Here there is extensive discussion of the schools and preparatory school program. Included with our assessment are numerous insights offered by the staff at the various schools we visited. You can also order our British Preparatory Schools E-book by using your credit card. The cost is $25. To place the order through Payall, click on the "Buy Now" above.

British eBook, Volume II

Here we have another E-Book done with our color photographs. Volume II will be more of a photo essay organized roughly along the school's daily schedule so you can see the operation of the schools as the day develops from early morning to going home after school, or for the boarders, bed time. There is also extensive information about the varied uniforms that the chlldren wear. This volume is largely completed, although we are still adding some pages.

British eBook, Volume III

We have only begun to work on volume III of our British E-Book. We now have many pages created and have begun to load images. The book is, however, at an early stage of development. Voume III is a series of photo essays based on the photograps we took on our visits to British preparatory schools. As we did with the printed edition of Boys Preparatory Schools we are using some of the poems, quips, and written work of the children and comments by the teachers to provide insights on the schools. Much of this comes from school publications, but we have added some of our conversations as well. The photographs provide glimses of the schools, but the written pieces provide useful insights into school life that enhance the photographs.

British eBook, Volume IV

Here we will focus on boarding school life. While we will concentrate on British preparatory school, we will also include life at some public schools (private secondary) schools as well as schools in Australia and New Zealand which follow English educational models with some local twists. The preparatory school was founded as a boarding school to prepare younger boys for public school life. While early preparatort schools were boarding schools, modern prep schools are more diverse, although boarding continues to be an important part of the progeam at many schools. These schools have in various ways integrated a program for day children into the overall program. This has largely been an adjustment forced upon the schools by changing parental attitudes toward boarding tounger children.

British eBook, Volume V

Here we concentrate on preparatory schools in Scotland. We will describe the traditional prep school and the role of boarding as well as day schools and day children at boarding schools. As in England there are both day and boarding schools in Scotland. The schools in England and Scotland are quite simlar. We have not noted any major differences between the school programs albeit there are some curriculum differences. There were some differences in the uniform, but otherwise we habe not noted any oher major differences between the schools in England and Scotland. It is interesting to note the British prep school program specifically at the Scottish schools.

British eBook, Volume VI

Welcome to the Apertures Press e-Book: "British Preparatory Schools", Volume VI. Apertures has received quite a few inquiries about both the printed book published in 1990 and the other volumes of our e-Book. Many readers have expressed an interest in the uniforms worn at the school. As a result, we have decided to compile another volume of our E-book specifically about the many varied school uniforms. The uniforms developed in Britain have had a major impact on the school uniforms adopted arounf the world. This is a follow up on our traditionally published book--Boys Preparatory Schools. The book is about half completed at this time. Readers to follow our further process by viewing draft pages and pages in progress as we create them. Besides giving readers the opportunity to follow progress on the book as it develops.

New Zealand eBooks

We have moved the New Zealand eBook from a different host. This has required some changes in the codeing. Most of this has been finished, but there are still some pages that have coding errors. The New Zealand eBook is now larger than the 250-300 pages we had originally planned. We have thus created create Vol. II and III so we can expand our coverage and address a range of topics in greater detail. We are jusdt getting started on Vol. II and III, but have loaded quite a number of new pages.

Current Status

A reader of the British eBook writes, "Many thanks for all the updates you have sent me as your excellent book has grown. These now seem to have dried up. Does this mean that the e-book is now complete?" Oh no. These things go in cycles. Of late I have been working on a variety of research projects. The New Zealand eBook is now larger than the 250-300 pages we had originally planned. We are planning to create Vol. II. The British eBook Vol. I still has a few pages to go. The British eBook Vol. II still has quite a few pages to go. And we have plans for future volumes. We re just beginning Vol. III and IV. I might add that what takes the most time when working on the eBook is writing the text. We strongly encourage readers to comment with their insights which will help create new pages. Also we encourage readers to ask questions. This alerts us to topics we have not explained fully or very well.





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