Description

Let’s Meet Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole

Let’s Meet Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. This is a conversation between two great women. As this script was requested by a nurse who is going out to train student nurses in Sierra Leone, the text is not at Key Stage I level. It can, however, be easily simplified to meet the needs of younger children.

5-minute script plus 5-minute quiz.

Sample Text

Florence:                     But it wasn’t just the war we were both up against, right?

Mary:                          Right! We both had other battles to fight!

Florence:                     And you more than most. Fancy being refused as a nurse – purely because of the colour of your skin? Disgraceful!

Mary:                          Yes, that was hard to take. I mean, just because I was of mixed race – what difference should that make?

Florence:                     In a sane world, none. But we’re talking about Victorian times when skin colour could still go against you.

Mary:                          Crazy! Just because my mother was Jamaican and my father Scottish. He actually served in the British army.

Florence:                     And your mother taught you those wonderful African cures for tropical illnesses. I wish I had had that kind of support from home.

Mary:                          What? Your parents didn’t stand by you?

Florence:                     Oh no, I didn’t mean that. I came from a very loving home …

Mary:                          But?

Florence:                     But it really wasn’t the done thing for young ladies of my background to go into nursing!

Also available:

Assembly on Florence Nightingale
Assembly on Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell
Assembly on Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell