Many of you will be starting your Great Fire topic this term. Naturally you will want this to be exciting as well as challenging and you will want to focus on the main historical concepts: in this case, cause and consequence and change.
But you might also like to introduce half-a dozen further thoughts which might broaden pupils’ thinking and experience.
How about discussing:
1. How a small event, with a careless baker in a short narrow lane, can lead to a major unplanned result such as the rebuilding of vast areas of the capital.
2. How in the past people did not have the degree of planning, health and safety we have today but that doesn’t mean they were stupid. Look at St Paul’s Cathedral and then tell me the people living in Stuart times were ignorant.
3. Some clouds have silver linings as lessons are learned and improvements made e.g. a cleaner, safer London and better fire service.
4. People do not always behave in the way you think they should. Everyone sees the world differently.
5. We are constantly updating our views on why things happened. A generation ago we did not know about the oil repository
