Significant people in history - Emily Wilding Davison (SEND)

This pack is aimed at 5-7 year olds, but could be used with older pupils. The supporting activities are designed for students with SEND, but could be used with other students if felt appropriate.

This resource pack can be used to support the History, Literacy and PSHE curriculums.

Additionally these resources can be used in assemblies or at significant points in the year, for example to celebrate International Women’s Day or as part of work at the time of an election.

Learning intentions:

 Find out that women have not always been allowed to vote in elections

 Learn about the Suffragettes movement and some of the methods they used to draw attention to their campaign

 Know who Emily Wilding Davison was and how she died

 Have an opportunity to discuss issues of fairness and equality

Getting started: Notes for teachers

Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913) was a leading suffragette, campaigning in the early 20th century for votes for women in the UK. She was born in South London. She went to university, even though women were not allowed to take degrees at that time and she became a teacher.

In 1906, she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) founded by Emmeline Pankhurst. In 1909, she gave up her job as a teacher to work for the WSPU full time. She was frequently arrested for militant acts, including burning post boxes, breaking windows and throwing rocks at David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister. She was imprisoned on a number of occasions and went on hunger strike to protest about this.

During the 1911 census, she hid overnight in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons, so that would be recorded as her address in an attempt to claim her political rights. This was commemorated in 1991 when Tony Benn MP put up a plaque in the cupboard. Emily Wilding Davison died in 1913 after she was hit by the King’s horse during a race at the Epsom Derby. It appeared she wanted to attach a banner to the horse calling for Votes for Women, but it is not clear if she intended to kill herself.

For all pupils, especially those with SEND, this topic involves several abstract concepts. It is, therefore, important that they can make links to their own experiences to understand them. A pack of vocabulary cards are included for pre-learning and/or display to ensure that pupils have the necessary vocabulary to ‘tune in’ and fully take part in learning.

Activity 1: Introducing the idea that women were not able to express their views, could not vote and this was not fair. Ask the pupils to think about and share games they like to play at break time at school. Record a list of the different games. For those with SEND this could be supported by pictures of them (or other pupils) on the playground to prompt ideas. Discuss with the pupils when they are playing in a group, how they decide what they are going to play. This could be supported by role play or using a piece of video taken on the playground. The ideas are likely to include:  discussion / talking about it with friends  one person chooses  voting  having a favourite game they always play  choosing around a particular piece of equipment or space

Introduce the idea that only the boys would be allowed to choose the games.  How would the girls feel? Try to capture and record the feeling in words  What difference would it make to what and how they played?  What would they do to change this? Explain that 100 years ago all the choices and decisions were made by men. Women and girls were not allowed to vote, get degrees or have a bank account without a man’s permission. Ask the pupils how they feel about this. There is a set of sentence starters to support pupils with SEND at the end of the document.

Activity 2: Developing pupils’ understanding of similarities and differences and historical change, particularly that there were no female MPs a hundred years ago. Use the similarities and difference pack with pupils working; as a whole class, individually, in pairs, or as a group to compare the pictures of the House of Commons. Those with SEND may need the support of working in a group for this activity. This should provide the visual support for understanding that only men could be MPs in 1918. There are visual reminders for the words ‘same’ and ‘different’ included in the pack for use with pupils who struggle with this concept. This may need exploring before the pupils start the activity.

Activity 3: Emily Wilding Davison’s story. Use the PowerPoint to tell the story of Emily Wilding Davison. Discuss with pupils:  What was she angry about?  Why couldn’t she vote?  What did she do to try and get the vote?  How is she remembered?  What happened as a result of her protests? It may be helpful to sketch events onto a timeline to help the pupils understand how long ago this was and that Emily died before women were given the vote.

Activity 4: Developing understanding of protests and demonstrations now and in the past. The aim of the photo pack is to develop pupils’ understanding of: • What a protest is and looks like today and in the past • Understanding of past and present • Linking protests in the past and present

This photo pack has 2 elements: • Pictures from modern protests • Pictures of suffragettes Feel free to change the order of the pictures, use just a selection of the pictures or to add pictures of your own or from current news stories. But remember to be aware that images should be appropriate for your class’ age and stage. Also be aware of political comment - just because you can’t understand what is written on a poster, it doesn’t mean that someone else in your classroom can’t.

Other possible activities • Ask the pupils to sort the pictures in any way they like This may lead to discussion of black and white/colour images. It is important that pupils understand that old photographs are black and white due to the technology, not because the past happened in black and white. A modern picture taken in black and white is included in the pack. • Take two pictures on similar themes and identify similarities and differences - how do they know which one is older? • Discuss the difference between peaceful and non-peaceful protest. • Look at the pictures and identify the feelings of the people in the pictures and think why they might feel like that. The sentence starter pack can be used to support those with SEND with this.

Sentence starters for children with SEND to use in discussion: