On Friday 28th November, Form II enjoyed taking part in Florence Nightingale Day. We have been studying the life of Miss Nightingale in our History lessons since half term and have thoroughly enjoyed learning about her personal life and the changes she made to nursing.
All of the girls dressed up as Victorian nurses and looked simply fabulous! With aprons and bonnets at the ready, we were ready for an exciting day! To begin the day, we made a human timeline of the events that occurred during Florence’s life. We took it in turns to reveal a date and event card and then got ourselves in order. We had been learning about chronological order and events in ‘living memory’ which really helped us to construct the timeline.
We then learnt about the various medals and honours that Florence received, including an ‘Order of Merit’. This was quite remarkable at the time because it had never been presented to a woman before. We then designed our own medals using pictures and important dates from Florence’s life and wore them proudly!
After playtime, we moved on to learning about Victorian life. Queen Victoria was on the throne during Florence Nightingale’s life. We learnt about the divide between the rich and poor and also found out about the difference in treatment between men and women. We were mortified to discover that women were expected to stay at home and learn to keep house and care for children! How times have changed!
We enjoyed learning about the different toys that Victorian children had to play with, and the differences between rich families and poor families in terms of their play things. We looked through photos of typical wooden Victorian toys such as hoops, rocking horses and train sets and then got to work making our own versions of the classic ‘Cup and Ball’ toy. We loved designing the outside of the cups and had great fun trying to catch the ball in the cup. It wasn’t as easy as we thought!
In the next session, we made some paper lanterns, to replicate Florence Nightingale’s lamp that she used to carry around the hospital wards during the night, when she checked on the sick and injured soldiers. She was famously known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ and after some careful cutting and sticking, we had thirteen Ladies with Lamps!
We then started preparations for a Victorian Afternoon Tea. We carefully spread butter on some bread and laid some cucumber slices on top to make some delicious cucumber sandwiches. When the main event arrived, we accompanied our sandwiches with little cupcakes and jam tarts! What a Friday treat!
We then practised our nursing skills on each other, by using bandages to cover pretend wounds, as Florence would have done during the Crimean War. We wrapped bandages around our arms, legs and heads. We looked like we had really been in the wars!
We finished the day with a spot of deportment, where we carefully balanced books on our heads and walked from one side of the classroom to the other. Some of us had super balance! It was quite tricky for lots of us, but each time the book fell we all had a little giggle and found it very funny!
Overall, we had a fantastic day, learning new skills with friends, being very creative and enjoying some delicious treats. What a fabulous Friday!
