27 Facts About Vera Southgate

Vera Southgate was a British educationalist who dedicated herself to improving how children were taught to read English from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, a period when many different methods were practised, including the initial teaching alphabet, phonics, and whole language.

Vera Southgate was a prolific author of academic papers, developed the Southgate reading tests, and even served on the Bullock government inquiry.

Vera Southgate evaluated the initial teaching alphabet on behalf of the British government.

Vera Southgate's final major research project was a five-year study aimed at improving the reading skills of older children.

Vera Southgate wrote over fifty primers and reading books, often included in basal reading schemes.

Vera Southgate gained widespread recognition for the Well Loved Tales, a Ladybird-graded reading book series, which sold 80 million copies but reached a much larger audience through schools and libraries.

Thanks to her contributions, Vera Southgate was named the 7th president of the United Kingdom Reading Association and was posthumously inducted into the association's Hall of Fame.

In 1942, she married Arthur Vera Southgate and stopped teaching to become a housewife.

Vera Southgate returned to work and moved to Manchester, where she met Douglas Thomas Booth.

Vera Southgate had no children, but she had a close relationship with her sister and her nephews.

Vera Southgate eventually died on March 23,1995, in Consett, County Durham.

From this start, Vera Southgate went on to teach at infant, junior, secondary, and special schools which provided her with a broad experience of teaching children.

Over her academic career Vera Southgate specialised in the pedagogy of reading, by 1969 her research had already been published in several books and over 70 papers in learned journals, the major works are listed below.

Vera Southgate extensively lectured on this subject both in the UK and abroad, including international conferences.

On her retirement in 1980, Vera Southgate donated her library of children's reading books, a collection of 2,589 books which Vera had accumulated over her two decades of study, to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester.

Vera Southgate prolifically published academic articles and papers in education journals with the more noteworthy listed: -.

Between 1957 and 1962, Vera Southgate developed the Southgate group reading tests, which were noteworthy for their ability to identify backward readers.

Vera Southgate was a staunch advocate of testing and monitoring levels of attainment in reading and was accredited by the James report for her work in measuring incidents of reading failure, which had led to the Lord James's enquiry into teacher education and teacher training.

In 1970, Vera Southgate wrote a book in collaboration with Geoffrey R Roberts, to help teachers to select an appropriate method and reading materials to use in classrooms to teach children to read.

In 1972, Vera Southgate published a collection of her most important articles and papers to-date in this book.

Vera Southgate sat on the committee from 1972 until 1975 when the final report was published and presented to Reg Prentice.

Between 1970 and 1971, Vera Southgate held the prestigious post of the seventh president of the United Kingdom Reading Association, now known as the United Kingdom Literacy Association.

In 1998, Vera Southgate was posthumously elected to the associations hall of fame.

The majority of Vera Southgate's work was published by Ladybird Books, between 1962 and 1974, in the easy reading series given the reference 606 by Ladybird Books.

In 1964, Vera Southgate wrote both books of the Sports easy reading series.

The books in the Well Loved Tales series retold by Vera Southgate are listed below: -.

In 1968, Vera Southgate wrote a series of twelve illustrated books with brief captions intended to teach kindergarten children to read their first words, the series was published by Macmillan.