Florence Nightingale Calls On Year 1

The classes are studying Florence in their History lessons and the workshop really helped to bring the topic alive.

Florence visited the school to tell the children all about her life. Starting with her childhood, her governess and her lessons and then onto her travels and her motivation to become a nurse. The children enjoyed engaging with drama activities such as role play and tableaux to explore her life.

Year 1 became nurses and travelled to the old Barrack Hospital in Scutari, her base during the Crimean War.  They then re-enacted life in hospital, improving the conditions by taking on tasks such as cleaning and caring for the soldiers. They also heard about the work of Mary Seacole who set up the British Hospital behind the lines in the war.

Mrs Symons commented, “The children were really impressed with Florence Nightingale, and enjoyed the practical hands-on experience of the session. They discovered lots about her life and her nursing legacy and came back to their classrooms enthused and excited and able to share lots of information.”

The children said "Florence Nightingale came to Crescent this week to tell Year 1 children all about her life.  We found out that she lived in Victorian times, she really wanted to be a nurse and she was excellent at cleaning hospitals. We loved it when some of us got to be nurses and bandage the injured soldiers."