Florence Nightingale

Workshop

For – Key Stage 1 / 2

Duration – 2 Hours

Before the Visit To run this session you will need to bring 5 adults to guide the children on the 5 tables that they will explore in the session. To make life easier for yourself and the other adults that you will bring on the day, we suggest that each adult takes one of the tables and stays on that table whilst the children rotate. The member of Tullie House staff that will be guiding the session will spend a few minutes before the session begins showing you and your adults the tables and activities. Please draw particular attention to the health and safety notes that are included in this pack.

On arrival Please go to the main reception desk and hand in your confirmation of booking and your signed health and safety form. If your class need the toilet we advise you to use the main ones in the reception area. A member of the Tullie House Learning Team will be contacted and you will be taken to your session. There is space to leave coats outside the Activities Room but if you have bags as well it is better to ask at Reception for a coat bin. Before the children enter the Activities Room please remind them not to touch anything.

Format of the Session Our Florence Nightingale session is 2 hours in length and looks at Florence’s life as a nurse through objects and pictures. Please arrange for 5 adult helpers to be available to help the children in their activity groups. The overall aim of the session is to help children develop skills in using objects, clothes and pictures to find out about Florence Nightingale and Victorian life. Children will have the opportunity to meet Florence Nightingale, handle real and replica objects, dress up as Victorian Characters and use creative thinking skills. The session covers the improvements Florence made to the Scutari hospital and how this has influenced modern hospitals today. The children will also find out about Victorian women by examining Florence’s belongings. The session starts with the whole class meeting Florence. They will discuss what is different about the clothes she is wearing, how long ago she lived and what she did as a job. The class will then be split into five groups. The 5 groups will all carry out the following five activities moving round tables:

1. Exploring the objects that Florence took to the Scutari hospital to care for the patients 2. Sorting objects into the different types of activities Florence and her nurses carried out:

Cook, Clean and Mend 3. Comparing modern and Victorian objects 4. Imagining what Florence was like as a person by examining her belongings 5. Dressing up and acting as characters in a painting of the Scutari hospital

Enclosed in your pack you will find:

Object Notes Table instructions detailing the activities for each table A risk assessment

Please read these before the visit and supply adult helpers with the appropriate information. We look forward to seeing you.

Table 1: How did Florence improve the care of soldiers in the Scutari

hospital?

Introduction: Before Florence went to the Scutari hospital in Turkey the soldiers weren’t being looked after properly. She brought these things to help look after them better.

Activity 1: Match the pictures to the old objects to find out what Florence used to look after the wounded soldiers and make them better.

Activity 2: Choose an object and discuss how you think it was used in the hospital.

Florence Nightingale Table 1 Object Notes

This inhaler cup would have contained strong smelling

medicine that patients would have inhale to help them

breath better.

This cup is designed to provide drink to a person who is ill or

lying down. An ordinary cup would spill but this one has a

lid to make sure the liquid stays in. Florence would have

used a cup like this in the hospital at Scutari.

Florence is often referred to as the Lady with the Lamp.

Electricity was not yet invented and this Turkish Lantern is

the kind of light she would have had. Inside would have

been a candle. How safe do you think this would be?

The Victorians did not have the sanitation that we are used

to today. Toilets were very rare and most people would use

a chamber pot like this which was kept under the bed.

Richer people would have had servants to empty theirs.

This eye bath was used to wash the eye out, get rid of

anything stuck in there and to try and get rid of infections.

These are Victorian medicine bottles made from glass.

Compare them with the modern medicine bottles we have

today – are they similar or different?

These little scales would have been used to measure out

medicine in the form of powders or pills. They attach to the

lid of the box. Can you work out how?

Table 2:

How did Florence look after the soldiers better and make them well?

Introduction: Florence wanted the hospital and the soldiers to be clean so they could get well again. Before Florence went to the Scutari hospital the patients were dirty and lived in overcrowded wards. In these conditions diseases such as cholera, typhus and dysentery spread quickly. Florence and her nurses:

Fed the soldiers good food to make them healthy Cleaned the hospitals so disease didn’t spread Mended clothes so the soldiers were warm and cared for

Activity: 1

a. Pass round each of the objects thinking about what they are made from and what they are used for. b. Put each object under one of the 3 headings- Clean, Cook and Mend.

Activity 2: If you have time:

Ask each child to choose an object and demonstrate/mime how it would have been used.

Florence Nightingale Table 2 Object Notes

Florence knew that good hygiene and comfort were important

when caring for injured soldiers. She found many were infested

with lice. This is a nit comb used to get rid of creepy crawlies!

The hospital had to be kept clean as well as the patients.

Florence arrived in Scutari with 38 nurses and one of their first

jobs was to clean up by hand. They would probably have used a

scrubbing brush and carbolic soap like this.

Today we tend to throw things away when they are torn or

damaged but in Florence’s day many items would be reused.

This sewing kit and thimble would have been essential.

Florence knew that the soldiers needed hygienic conditions and

medicine to recover but she also knew they needed good food.

To give the soldiers better meals, the chef Alexi Soyer arrived to

cook at Scutari. This is his recipe book.

This is a natural sponge used for cleaning. Sponges are

obtained from primitive animals that are found in sea and fresh

water. They are very absorbent and ideally suited for holding

water. You can still buy them in the shops today.

This is a tooth powder bottle. Cleaning your teeth with tooth

paste and brush was rare. Tooth brushes were first mass

produced in 1873. The powder was very hard, and actually

ground your teeth away! The poor would use bicarbonate of

soda but the rich used paste with a brush.

This is a jelly mould. Jelly is a simple food stuff which is often

given to people when recovering from illness. Can you see the

decoration on the inside of the mould? What is it?

There was no plumbed water at Scutari like most Victorian

homes and water would be carried in jugs or pitchers so that

people could then wash using a bowl.

Table 3: Finding out about Florence

Activity 1: These objects belonged to Florence; can you match the labels to the objects?

Activity 2: Can you work out what type of person Florence was from the objects? Think about:

What she liked to do What clothes she wore Was she religious? How she might have communicated with people

Florence Nightingale Table 3 Object Notes

This would have been very useful on a journey. It is a foot warmer

and would have been filled with hot coals. Florence’s time saw the

beginnings of the railways and hot coal could have been collected

from the engine driver.

Florence was a very religious woman but not in a traditional sense.

She hated ritual and didn’t seem to side with any denomination.

She fell out with one hospital for refusing to treat Roman Catholic

patients. She did believe God had called her to be a nurse. These

2 religious objects – a Bible and a Rosary - are Victorian.

Once you had written a letter in Victorian times you would not

have been able to lick the envelope to stick it down. Instead you

would have used molten wax and a seal like this. The ‘N’ stands

for Nightingale.

This newspaper comes from 1854. If you look closely there is a

short article in it about the Siege of Sebastopol. Compared to our

papers today there is a lot of writing. Women were not supposed

to read newspapers but Florence did.

A small model owl like this would have been held special memories

for Florence. In England she had a pet owl called Athena which she

had rescued from some boys in Athens. She carried her around in

the top pocket of her jacket.

Victorian ladies footwear could be very tight. Boots were either

laced or buttoned up. This shoe horn would help to get your foot

into the boot and the hook was used to tighten laces or buttons.

Think of all the ways we communicate today from phones, to

texting, to e-mailing. In Victorian times the only option was to

write a letter. This is a writing case and ink well. Inside there is

an example of the kind of card they might send. The pen would

have been dipped into the ink well.

This is a Sebastopol clasp medal. These were awarded to those

involved in the Siege of Sebastopol which lasted from 1854 to 1855

in recognition for their bravery.

Table 4:

Are the things Florence owned the same or different to the things we

use today?

Activity 1: Choose an object from the table As a group discuss what each object is and what is similar and different to the modern equivalent. Activity 2: Choose your favourite object and make a drawing of it?

Florence Nightingale Table 4 Object Notes

This is called a miser’s purse. It allows you to count your

money without anyone else seeing what you are doing.

Inside is some money from the Victorian period. The coins

are different to those we have today. Can you spot Queen

Victoria as a younger and older woman?

This is a ladies note book. A pencil would be used to write

with so notes could be rubbed out and the pages used again.

The pages are made from thin sheets of bone.

This ornate hair brush would have been used by a Victorian

lady like Florence. Brushes from this era could be made

from silver and the bristles from animal hair such as horse,

badger or boar. Can you spot the faces in the pattern?

This is a fob watch. Wrist watches are a more modern

invention and in Victorian times fob or pocket watches were

used. Nurses still use fob watches today.

Ladies would use this fan to keep cool, it was also a fashion

item.

These clothes might have been used by Florence. She wore

a cap to cover her hair, an apron to protect her clothes

when working and bloomers like these underneath

everything else! Did you guess it was underwear?

Table 5: Put yourself in the picture.

Introduction: These clothes are like the ones some of the people in the Scutari hospital would have worn.

Activity: Dress up as one of the people from the hospital. Look at the picture of the hospital in Scutari. Can you see a person who is dressed like you? As a group create the picture.

Freeze the picture: Everyone freeze to create a moment in time from the picture.

Unfreeze the picture: When the group leader says “action” everyone take on the role of someone in the hospital.

Table 5 objects

Lamp

Cup

Medicine bottles