The Key Word Reading Scheme is down to the work of educationalist William Murray and a senior educational psychologist called Joe McNally. Murray identified a problem with the UK education system where many children were having problems learning to read. Along with McNally he identified the words that were used most frequently in everyday language (which was surprisingly few of the average person’s 20,000 word vocabulary) and from this they developed their ‘Key Words to Literacy’ research. And it was an article in The Teacher magazine by Murray, about this research, that prompted publisher Douglas Keen to ask Murray to produce the text that became the Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme. Harry Wingfield had already been working for Keen, drawing the pictures for earlier Ladybird books, and he became the illustrator for the Key Words series: the drawings of Jane and Peter being based on two children who lived locally to Wingfield. And just to prove that the sun didn’t always shine in Peter and Jane’s world: let me finish with a picture: In every class you get a couple of children who simply can't do phonics. There are many different approaches, repetitive patterns, picture cues, grammatical context and the 'shape of words' sometimes works better for some children. The first book in the series, Ladybird series 641, was published in 1964, and the series was completed by the first publication of the 36th book in 1967. Over 80 million books in the series have been sold worldwide, and the books remain in print in 2012.

Apart from the disappearance of the ‘Hornby’? train sets, you might notice that the golly, on the top row of the 1960s book, has been airbrushed out in the 1970s version. Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 December 2014 . Retrieved 2015-12-31. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) Some changes are fairly subtle: Here are the two shop windows of the 60s and 70s versions. Spot the difference.

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When he was eight years old, he began working as a child actor, and appeared in the film The Planter's Wife, and the stage play Isn't Life Wonderful. At the age of nine, Asher played the central juvenile part in the 1953 film version of Isn't Life Wonderful!, along stars Cecil Parker and Donald Wolfit. In 1955 he played the youngest brother, "Johnny", in Escapade, based on Roger MacDougall's play. The film starred John Mills and Alastair Sim. He also appeared in the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood. The aforementioned very first book, ‘1a’ was a gentle beginning to both the idea of reading and the children and their family themselves – 12 key words reinforced by being repeated in simple sentences: ‘Here is Jane’, ‘Jane is here’,’ I like Peter’, ‘Peter likes Jane’ etc. More words would be introduced as the book went on but all with the same template sentences. After 1a the reader could move on to 1b to continue to practise the words again: they would be used in a different context and new pictures would be included. 1c gave them the chance to practise writing the words from that level and also presented the idea of phonics, blending the sounds of letters or groups of letters to make the words. And once that level had been mastered then it was on book 2a and so on. As the levels increased the writing in the books got smaller, with sentences becoming more complex and more key words being used.

Scarfe, Gerald (2010). The Making of Pink Floyd The Wall. Da Capo Press. p.21. ISBN 978-0-306-81997-1. Asher had been quoted as saying that actor Mike Myers has said he had patterned his Austin Powers character after Asher's appearance, [13] although Elizabeth Hurley, who co-starred in Austin Powers, said the original model was broadcaster Simon Dee. [15] Amongsy all this parody, one piece that is attracting attention and no little controversy is Miriam Elia’s recent book: ‘We Go the the Gallery’. Spider-Man, Marvel Comics, Marvel Universe, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Comic bookmarkAccording to the Channel4 Publishers Penguin may take legal action against artist Miriam Elia and her book We go to the gallery . A satire on modern art, it’s written in the style of the Ladybird books key words series. Ayton’s CV serves as a pattern for the other freelance illustrators who were responsible for turning Ladybird into a global phenomenon during the 1960s. John Berry designed the Tiger in Your Tank logo for Esso before producing the People at Work series for Ladybird, which gives an unparalleled account of the social landscape of late-industrial Britain, one filled with miners, potters and engine drivers. Then there’s Frank Hampson, creator of the Eagle’s Dan Dare, who illustrated that quintessential Ladybird series, Kings and Queens of England. Most distinguished of all was CF Tunnicliffe RA, the renowned wildlife illustrator who produced the lyrical What to Look For (in Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) series. My thanks to my friend Paul Crampton for helping me sort this out). Peter, Jane and John Major’s England Or – Here come two white, middle-class, gender-divided, politically unreconstructed prigs. In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox – Carol Burnett (2016) It’s pretty safe to say that most British children in the 1960s and ‘70s grew up on good terms with Peter, Jane and their dog, Pat. In fact, so popular were these characters that featured in the series of Ladybird books designed to help young children to learn to read, that they were generally referred to as ‘ Peter and Jane books’ rather than their official title, the Key Words Reading Scheme.