Does anyone remember Guy Boas' July Books innovation? It was introduced after the Second World War as a way of keeping the boys occupied at the end of the summer term. Pupils were given the last two weeks of the term to produce work done entirely on their own, in the form of either books or models. Prizes were awarded for really meritorious work, with staff judging the first rounds, and an outside adjudicator choosing the three or four best entries to receive special prizes.
Entries one year in the Models category included a radio-controlled motor-boat, tip-up bed, model of the school buildings, old Englsh manor, open-air theatre, suspension bridge, mandoline, river-boat, English clay pipes, and medieval tortures! Books, in the same year, were produced on the Roman Army, Persia, History of Education, Space Exploaration, Story of the Balloon, A Spectroscopic Study, Air Mail Services, Climatology, Heraldry, the Kariba Dam, A French Cafe, Dogs, and Eight Days in Devon!
July Books was popular with boys and masters alike, with one senior member of staff remarking that it was the first time he had ever been able to write his reports in peace.
I don't recall the name July Books being used when I was at Sloane between 1963-70, but something similar did exist, and I recall a boy in my year, John Pink, fishing a piece of driftwood out of the Thames at Putney and entering it as his own work of sculpture. I believe he even won a prize!
