The 1983 Princethorpe magazine has the first mention of ‘the school computer’ which was used by the Austin House Captain in 1982 ‘to write a programme listing every member’s interests and hobbies’ in order to help him pick teams for inter-house events. Sadly it wasn’t successful in producing any winners… but then it was very early days for AI!

1983 also saw a special trip to Lutterworth for students to see the IBM System 34 computer, ‘a business computer… [with] a large memory of 256 kilobytes’ (for comparison, our current minimum memory recommendation for students’ devices is 8GB!) Students on the trip enjoyed playing some of the 35 games available on the computer, and using it to print out calendars featuring Road Runner and Snoopy.

New computer rooms with network capabilities were added to the College in 1984, and by 1985 the Computer Department was running popular lunchtime and after-school clubs.

Fast forward to 1998, and the College library’s first computerised catalogue was introduced, while in September 1999 a ‘new state-of-the-art ICT suite’ was opened ready for the start of the school year.

Do you remember using the new ICT facilities, or perhaps seeing the introduction of the very first computers at the College? We’d love to hear your memories! Email us at archives@princethorpe.co.uk.

Images:

Cover: Computer room in the Limes building, 2019

1. Computer trip report, Princethorpe magazine, 1983

2. Computer Department news, Princethorpe magazine, 1985

3. Mr Darkes’ advice on home computers, The Tower magazine, Christmas 1998