Our topic for this term is all about SUPERHEROES! So I would like you to find out some facts about one of these two real life superheroes.
Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole were two ordinary women who decided to do amazing things. They were smart, brave and did everything they could to help others. This is what I think makes them superheroes.
I would like you to find out more about either Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole or both of them!
Who were they? When were they alive? What did they do? What did they do during the Crimean War? What changes to nursing and medicine have they made? Why do we still remember them?
These are just a few questions for you to think about while you are reading about them. Please find out anything else that you find interesting as well!
When searching on the internet, it is always important to stay safe and use age appropriate search engines and websites. Click on these websites that I have included below to find out facts about these amazing women!
- https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/mary-seacole
- https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/florence-nightingale
- https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/history/general-history/mary-seacole/
- https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/history/general-history/florence-nightingale/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zns9nrd
- https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/mary-seacole
- https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/florence-nightingale
If you want to look through any more website, make sure you use a child friendly search engine to keep safe online.
Put anything you find out in our blog so that you can share your research with all of us! If you would like to draw some drawing or art to show what these two women did, then please send in your pictures and I’ll post them here as well.
Dear Miss Carruthers,
Florence and Mary were both very courageous women.
They both were nurses during the Crimean war.
Florence Nightingale is considered the founder of modern nursing. She was born in 1820 in Italy and died in 1910. Queen Victoria awarded her the royal red cross medal.
Great facts Adrien. Do you think she deserved the award?
Florence was British but born in Florence, Italy very long ago in 1820.
She was Catholic.
She wanted to become a nurse to help people.
She became head nurse & to travelled in turkey to help soldiers in the Crimean War.
Her nickname is The Lady with the lamp.
She is a worldwide real life superhero!
Brilliant Romey! Why do you think she is a superhero?
Florence Nightingale was a nurse who helped in the Crimean War. Her parents didn’t want her to be a nurse but she did it anyway. She travelled by boat to the Crimea and was seasick on the way. She helped to look after the injured and sick soldiers. She carried a lamp at night time when she was looking after the injured soldiers and she was known as the lady with the lamp. She had a pet owl called Athena and a pet tortoise called Jimmy which are now dead but are in the Florence Nightingale Museum in London.
Poor Florence being so seasick on her journey!
Was Mary Seacole a hero? Yes, because she looked after the wounded.
People were mean to her but she didn’t give up. She set up a hotel and a hospital with only a maid to help. She cooked food, gave them water, and looked after them.
She was almost forgotten but never was. A man wrote about her and made a big party to help her and 80,000 people came.
I agree – I think that she is a hero because she didn’t give up when people were mean and she did what was right to help others.
1. Who were they?
Florence Nightingale was a nurse and born in Florence, Italy into a privileged family. When she was young, girls did not go to school but her Father gave her lessons in subjects such as maths and science.
2. When were they alive?
Florence Nightingale was born on the 12th of May 1820 and died on the 13th August 1910.
3. What did they do?
Florence Nightingale studied nursing at a school in Germany in 1853 and became a nurse. She learnt how to care for patients and ran a women’s hospital in London where she improved the conditions and patient care.
4. What did they do during the Crimean war?
Florence Nightingale improved the conditions of the hospital and provided quality care to the wounded soldiers. She cleaned the wards, set up the hospital kitchen, brought better medical equipment and food.
5. What changes to nursing and medicine have they made?
Florence Nightingale made changes to improve conditions in army hospitals. The army trained doctors, hospitals became cleaner and soldiers got better food and care.
6. Why do we still remember them?
Florence Nightingale is remembered as the founder of modern nursing and for improvements and changes to nursing. Without her, more people would have died from diseases and we would not have the changes we have today.
Wow Catherine! You have found out so much about Florence Nightingale.
1. Who were they?
They were both nurses .
2. When were they alive?
Florence and Mary were alive in 1820 and 1805.
3. What did they do?
Florence and Mary helped people who were ill and had diseases.
4. What did they do during the Crimean War?
Florence was a manger of nurses in the hospital.
5. What changes to nursing and medicine have they made?
They started eating healthy food, cleaned hands and floors because there were rats in hospitals.
6. Why do we still remember them?
We remember them because they saved peoples’ lives from diseases.
You are absolutely right, they made important changes to help save people’s lives.
Great work Layla – you have been busy today! I hope you enjoyed it and learnt something!
Mary Seacole was born in 1805 in Jamaica. Her dad was a scottish soldier and her mum was nurse. Her mum taught her how to treat diseases and she became a nurse and treated cholera and fever and other diseases. She went to the front of the battlefield in Crimea and set up a hospital for the sick and rode everyday to give out medicines to the sick soldiers and to collect the sick ones and bring them back to the hotel. After the war she was very poor and had no money. At that time most Jamaican people were slaves. She was not.
Well done for finding out about Mary Seacole. She has a very interesting life but people don’t learn about her as much. I definitely think she is a superhero!
1. Florence and Mary were both nurses.
2. Florence: 1820 – 1910; Mary: 1805 – 1881
3. Both helped people who were sick and both went to war zones to help the hurt soldiers.
4. Florence was called the Lady of the Lamp and worked in a hospital in the Crimea. She looked after the wounded soldiers, giving them healthy food, cleaning the hospital and checking on the ill patients also during the night. Mary went to the Crimea to look after the people sick with Cholera (she knew how to treat them. She paid with her own money and was very poor after the end of the war).
5. These were two people who helped others and cared after others and improved the way how we look after ill people.
They were both amazing! How did Mary already know how to treat cholera?
Florence Nightingale was born on 12th may 1820 in Florence, Italy (hence her name). She knew German, French, Italian and English (not as a baby). She was one of the greatest nurses, and was called the lady with the lamp (not they Disney film). She knew how to cure infections and treat solders’ wounds with good hygiene. She invented the Venn Diagram. It is a diagram that has two overlaping circles. You can put anything in each of the circles, but inside the the bit they share in the middle is a mixture of the two e.g. a snake + venom = venomous snake.
How fascinating! I didn’t know that she invented the Venn diagrams, are you sure it was her?
I didn’t know that Florence Nightingale invented the Venn diagram Rex. That’s an interesting fact.
Wealthy women in the Victorian time weren’t expected to be working. They normally stayed home, cooked, took care of the house and washed the clothes. But Florence heard a voice calling from up above that said to help those that suffer. She wanted to work at a hospital and help people.
You’re absolutely right, her parents were not keen for her to leave and work. She had to pretend she was going on a holiday otherwise they wouldn’t let her go.
I watched a video about Florence Nightingale that told me all about her life and work. She was born in Florence in Italy in 1820 and that gave her the name Florence. She loved to read books and wrote 200 books. She had a sister that distracted her of reading books. She wanted to be a nurse and changed the way hospitals worked during the Crimean war. She made them clean and was strict with the other nurses. She set up the first nurses training centre in London after the war.
She was blind in 1901 and died in 1910.
New hospitals have been built to help people with Coronavirus and they are named Nightingale after Florence.
Well done Sophia. She has done so much for nursing and care of patients that they have indeed named the new hospital after her.
Miss I agree with you. Florence Nightingale is a superhero. She is because she helped so many wounded people to get better especially during the Crimean war. She was a kind nurse who lived from 1820-1910. She was born in Florence, Italy, and that’s how she got her name but she is British. She was the first nurse to understand how important it is to keep hospitals clean and to wash your hands. Today the whole world is still following her advice to beat coronavirus.
Well done for giving so many reasons that she is a superhero!
Well done Sophie – you’ve done so excellent research and presented it beautifully.
Well done everyone. You have found out so much about these two superheroes. You must have done a lot of research. These two women remind me of all the superheroes we have right now – all the doctors and nurses looking after people in our hospitals. What do you think?
You have all been finding out lots of information about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. I think you will agree that all our NHS staff and carers are superheroes to.
Dear Miss Carruthers
we’ve finished our history research and we found out many interesting facts about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole.
Both have been superheroes nurses and dedicated their life to cure sick and soldiers wounded in the war.
Florence Nightingale was born in Florence in Italy that is where she got her name from. She was born on 12th of May 1820 ( 200 years ago). Every year on the 12 of May we celebrate International Nursing Day. She is considered the founder of modern nursing because she understood how important was to have hospitals clean,clean uniforms and clean hospital tools. She was called “ the lady with the la lamp”. In 1883 she met Queen Victoria who gave her a Royal Red Cross medal to thank her for the hard work. She cured sick and wounded in the Crimean war.
Mary Saecole
Her full name was Mary Jane Grant and she is also known as Mother Saecole. She was born in a town called Kingston in Jamaica in the 1805 and lived in England.She helped sick and wounded soldiers in the Crimean war like Florence Nightingale. She helped people with cholera as well.