Teaching Florence Nightingale at KS1

A brand-new new planner on Florence Nightingale featuring some exciting new fully-resourced enquiry questions has now been uploaded.(February 2021)

Although many Year 2 teachers feel that they would like a break from teaching Florence Nightingale in history at KS1, they cannot deny that she does indisputably provide an excellent context for the development of a variety of important skills and concepts in history. Pupils learn about sequence, duration and consequences. They can appreciate that there are different interpretations of Florence Nightingale and can, through role play, appreciate the different attitudes people had towards her in the past.

There are a wide range of lessons here to feed the wide demand and a downloadable planner in the medium term planning section. The one of the different stages of Florence’s life provides an excellent context for numeracy, so that children see the relative lengths of time Florence spent doing different things in her life.

Comparisons with Mary Seacole offer an excellent context for discussion of the theme of fairness, and pupils can be really creative in their work on how the contribution of the two women should be commemorated.

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Florence Nightingale – KQ1 – Why do we think Florence Nightingale is remembered? (New)

Pupils make deductions from a range of visual clues to see if they can work out what job Florence Nightingale did, before being told the story of her life through an illustrated PowerPoint presentation. Selected slides are then used to consolidate pupils’ ability to sequence...

Who influenced her decision to go? Already introduced to the major events in Florence’s life, children now speculate on why she took the brave decision to go to the Crimea. Thinking creatively, they discuss who might have influenced her decision positively and negatively, using a short...

In this lesson children compare the appalling conditions in the hospitals on Florence’s arrival at Scutari. With the help of animated rats!! They list the most significant problems and then compare with a hospital which had been transformed by Florence. They annotate a...

Learning objectives

• children can respond in role showing awareness of differing attitudes to Florence • they can judge whether each group would approve of giving Florence a medal

Starter

Start by slowly revealing a picture of the medal awarded to Florence (slide 2) and asking children to speculate what it...

Pupils have been drafted in to help with the wording on a statue to Florence Nightingale which had badly worn away over time and is now in danger of being indecipherable. But there is room for only 30 words on the new plaque. Which words...

Every so often you see an inspiring example of history and numeracy working together seamlessly. Such a lesson was taught by Ros Boulton of South Farnborough Infants. She wanted her children to do far more than draw a simple timeline of Florence Nightingale’s life. She...

This differentiated core activity is Prove it! Working in pairs as detectives with their own find the clue sheets and clipboards, pupils are given 10 statements about Florence and have to find the original sources that helped historians to make these statements. These pictorial sources...

NB This lesson overlaps, as you would expect with a similar lesson on Mary Seacole. It is slightly different in emphasis but if you are studying both women in equal depth you need to use Key question 6 from just one. If you are studying...

2 fun facts for pupils studying Florence Nightingale at KS1 and 2 key learning points

Just thought these two fun facts might interest your pupils, building on infants' interest in animals rather than death rates from dysentery! So the two facts are: 1. As a child, Florence already showed an interest in nursing by mending broken dolls and fitting splints to injured...

Here are 10 probing questions. See how you get on. Oh, and the answers are given below, in case you need them. As if! Q1. How was Florence Nightingale received by the doctors when she first arrived at the hospital in Scutari? Q2. Why was Florence known as...

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 other, you sit with a pack of cards which...

Teaching Florence Nightingale at KS1

Planner

Florence Nightingale – KQ1 – Why do we think Florence Nightingale is remembered? (New)

Florence Nightingale – KQ2 – Why did Florence place herself in such danger by going to the Crimea? (New version 2021)

Florence Nightingale – KQ3a – Fighting Fit. What did Florence do to improve the lives of the soldiers when she arrived in the Crimea? ( New version 2021)

Florence Nightingale – KQ3b – Smart task – What did people really think of Florence Nightingale?

Learning objectives

Starter

Florence Nightingale – KQ4a – What was Florence Nightingale’s greatest achievement?

Florence Nightingale – KQ4b – Florence Nightingale’s days are numbered. Brilliant cross-curricular History and Mathematics

Florence Nightingale – KQ5 – How do we know so much about Florence Nightingale when she lived so long ago?

Florence Nightingale – KQ6 – Should Florence Nightingale rather than Mary Seacole have her statue at St.Thomas’ hospital?

2 fun facts for pupils studying Florence Nightingale at KS1 and 2 key learning points

How well do you and your pupils know Florence Nightingale?

Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole SMART TASK

Useful links

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