Although students will be aware of the role soldiers play in wartime, few will know about the role of nurses. This article describes the work of New Zealand nurses who travelled to Africa and Europe during the First World War.

The three lesson overviews focus on:

• Comprehension and inferencing, supporting students to locate information, make meaning, and draw conclusions from the text;
• The author’s use of language and structure, exploring how word choice, sentence structure, and text features shape meaning; and
• Author’s purpose and themes, encouraging students to think critically about ideas, messages, and viewpoints.

Themes explored include: First World War, nurses, hospital ships, Somme, Edna Pengelly, Gallipoli, soldiers, war