Mary Seacole Lessons
In the past we have taught Florence and Mary Seacole together with perhaps too little emphasis on Mary. To restore the balance and to focus more on diversity, we have created a separate topic on teaching Mary Seacole, with her own set of key enquiry questions. The study culminates in a comparison of who better deserves a statue outside St.Thomas Hospital.
As well as dignifying the role of black females in the past, and taking them out of the shadows of history, this topic offers excellent opportunities to explore the changing attitudes to race, then and now.
Central to the topic is a focus on interpretations. Even young children should be able to enter the debate about Mary’s significance. How should we best remember her?
Mary Seacole KS1 Scheme of Work & Knowledge Organiser
| Mary Seacole Key Questions | Historical focus |
|---|---|
| KQ1 – How can we work out why Mary Seacole is famous? | Significance and historical enquiry |
| KQ2 – What were the most important events in Mary’s life? | Chronology and sequencing |
| KQ3 – What was Mary’s greatest achievement and how do we know? | Significance and evidence |
| KQ4 – How did life change for Mary after the Crimean War? | Change and chronology |
| KQ5 – What made Mary so special? | Character and significance |
| KQ6 – Why doesn’t everyone agree that Mary deserves her statue at St Thomas’ Hospital? | Interpretations and significance |
Mary Seacole – KQ1 – How can we work out why Mary Seacole is famous?
This session focuses on working out WHY Mary Seacole is commemorated today 200 years after she was born, and looks at the different ways in which she is remembered. The…
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Mary Seacole – KQ2 – What were the most important events in Mary’s life?
Pupils watch a short film to establish the outlines of the story and then have to sequence a differentiated set of images of the key events of her life. They…
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Mary Seacole – KQ3 – What was Mary’s greatest achievement and how do we know?
The focus here is mainly on the evidence for Mary’s achievement. This is important as she was a more-or-less forgotten figure for 200 years. So how do we know that…
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Mary Seacole – KQ4 – How did life change for Mary after the Crimean war?
What happened to Mary Seacole when the Crimean War was over? In this engaging KS1 history lesson, pupils discover that Mary’s return to Britain was far from straightforward. By sequencing…
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Mary Seacole – KQ5 – What made Mary so special?
What made Mary Seacole such a remarkable person? This short KS1 lesson helps pupils explore her kindness, courage and determination, choosing adjectives to describe her character and supporting their ideas…
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Mary Seacole – KQ6 – Why doesn’t everyone agree that Mary deserves her statue at St. Thomas’ hospital?
This lesson places pupils in the role of Mantle of the Expert. A new monument to Mary Seacole was erected outside St Thomas Hospital in 2016. But there have been…
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Smart task Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole: Who said it? / Who am I?
This simple task encourages children to spot the differences between Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. With a large A4 image of Florence on one side, and Mary Seacole on the…
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Mary Seacole – How should we remember her?
This lesson is the second featuring Mary Seacole. In the first her role was compared with Florence Nightingale’s. The focus now shifts to asking two key questions: which was Mary…
Read MoreWritten by Neil Thompson
All content on Keystage history is written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, a former history teacher, county history adviser and Ofsted inspector with more than 30 years’ experience in history education.