The Great Fire of London

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Enquiry questions

Why did the fire spread so quickly, and how was it eventually stopped?

What was it like to live through the Great Fire?

How did the Great Fire change London?

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Concepts

This study delivers 1 primary concept and 3 secondary concepts.

Primary concept: Historical Sources and Evidence (HI-KS1-C004)

Type: Skill | Teaching weight: 1/6

Historical sources are the materials from which historians reconstruct the past - artefacts, photographs, documents, buildings, oral testimonies and other traces that survive from earlier times. Historical evidence is information extracted from sources by asking questions about them. At KS1, pupils begin to work with a range of sources, developing the ability to observe carefully, ask questions, extract information and begin to understand that sources provide evidence rather than complete and unmediated truth. This introduces the idea that history is a process of interpretation as well as discovery.

Teaching guidance: Bring a range of historical sources into the classroom: artefacts (or replicas), old photographs, letters, maps and accounts. Teach pupils a simple enquiry process: observe, question, infer, connect. Ask pupils what a source tells us and what it does not tell us. Compare sources about the same event or person. Use visit resources: museums, historic sites, community collections. Develop vocabulary for discussing sources: what is it? Who made it? When? Why? What can we learn from it? Begin to distinguish between primary (from the time) and secondary (written about the time later) sources. Key vocabulary: source, evidence, artefact, document, photograph, account, primary source, secondary source, observe, question, infer, reliable, bias, interpret, past Common misconceptions: Pupils may treat all sources as equally reliable and complete. Introducing the idea that sources can be partial, biased or misleading even at KS1 develops critical thinking. Pupils may not understand that historians do not know everything about the past; emphasising what we do not know as well as what we do know models intellectual honesty. The concept of primary sources from 'the time' can be confusing; concrete examples help.

Differentiation

Model response (Entry): I can see a horse pulling a cart. There are people wearing long clothes. The road is made of cobblestones.

Model response (Developing): I wonder who played with it and how old it is. It tells us that children in the past played with wooden toys, not plastic ones. It doesn't have batteries so children had to use their imagination.

Model response (Expected): The photograph shows us what the building looked like — it had a thatched roof and small windows. The letter tells us how the person who lived there felt — they said it was cold in winter. The photograph shows the outside but the letter tells us about life inside. Together they tell us more than one source alone.

Secondary concept: Time and Chronology (HI-KS1-C001)

Type: Knowledge | Teaching weight: 1/6

Chronology is the ordering of events and periods in time. Understanding chronology requires both the vocabulary of time (before, after, then, now, long ago, recently, past, present) and the ability to place events and people in sequence relative to each other. At KS1, pupils develop chronological understanding beginning with their own life histories and moving outwards to family memories, local history and national events. Placing events on timelines, sequencing pictures and comparing 'old' and 'new' versions of familiar objects are key activities that develop chronological awareness.

Differentiation

Secondary concept: Change and Continuity (HI-KS1-C002)

Type: Knowledge | Teaching weight: 1/6

Historical change refers to the ways in which people's lives, beliefs, institutions and the world around them have transformed over time. Continuity refers to aspects that remain the same over long periods despite other changes. Understanding change and continuity requires pupils to identify what has changed, what has stayed the same, and to consider why some things change while others persist. At KS1, pupils explore change through comparing everyday objects, homes, transport and daily life across different time periods within living memory and beyond.

Differentiation

Secondary concept: Local and National History (HI-KS1-C005)

Type: Knowledge | Teaching weight: 1/6

History operates at different scales: the history of one's own locality connects personal and community identity to the broader national story, while national history provides the shared context within which local history is understood. The curriculum requires both local and national history at KS1, recognising that pupils' sense of historical belonging is rooted in the local even as they need to understand broader national narratives. Local history also provides access to primary sources and physical traces of the past that national history cannot always offer.

Differentiation

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Thinking lens: Cause and Effect (primary)

Key question: What caused this to happen, and how do we know? Why this lens fits: Studying significant individuals asks pupils to trace the consequences of particular people's actions on events and society — why did this person matter? what changed because of what they did? — which is explicitly causal-chain reasoning applied to historical biography and local/national narrative. Question stems for KS1:

What made that happen?

What will happen if...?

Why did it change?

Can you finish: it happened because...?

Secondary lens: Continuity and Change Over Time — This cluster is the foundational introduction to the most central historical thinking concept — pupils build the vocabulary of time and begin to distinguish what has changed from what has persisted within living memory, which is the cognitive essence of continuity_change reasoning.

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Session structure: Topic Study

Topic Study

A structured enquiry into a defined topic, period, or place. Begins with an engaging hook to capture interest, builds contextual knowledge, moves through source analysis and interpretation, and culminates in a substantiated argument or conclusion. The core humanities template.

hook → context → source_analysis → interpretation → argument Assessment: Extended writing task presenting a reasoned argument supported by evidence from the topic. Can take the form of an essay, structured explanation, or debate position. Teacher note: Use the TOPIC STUDY template: begin with a simple hook that captures children's curiosity — a picture, an object, or a short story. Provide context through visual and sensory experiences. Guide children to look at one source closely, describing what they can see. Ask them to say what they think it tells us, using 'I think... because...' sentences. KS1 question stems:

What can you see in this picture?

What do you think this tells us about life long ago?

What is the same as today? What is different?

How do you know? What clues can you spot?

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Primary sources

2 historically grounded source types are available for this study:

1. Contemporary Illustrations of the Great Fire of London (Primary Visual, )

Several artists produced views of the Great Fire both during and shortly after the event. The most famous is an anonymous painting now in the Museum of London showing the fire from the south bank of the Thames. These were produced to record a dramatic event and to sell as prints.

How to use: Show the painting and ask pupils to describe what they can see. Then ask: 'Who painted this? Were they there?' and 'What can the painting tell us that Pepys' diary cannot?' Use alongside HSRC-001 to develop the idea that different sources tell us different things. Location: Museum of London; British Museum URL: https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london

2. Samuel Pepys' Diary (Great Fire entries) (Primary Written, )

Samuel Pepys was a senior naval administrator and diarist who lived in London. He wrote his diary entries as personal records of his daily life, not for publication. His account of the Great Fire is an eyewitness description written as events unfolded.

How to use: Read simplified extracts aloud. Ask pupils: 'What did Pepys SEE and FEEL during the fire?' Then ask: 'Pepys was ONE person. Can his diary tell us what EVERYONE in London experienced?' This develops the concept that a source gives one perspective, not the whole picture. Location: Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge URL: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/09/

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Disciplinary concepts foregrounded

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Key figures and events

Key figures: Samuel Pepys, Thomas Farriner, King Charles II Key events:

Fire starts in Pudding Lane bakery 2 September 1666

Fire spreads across the City over 4 days

Old St Paul's Cathedral destroyed

Fire extinguished 5 September 1666

Period: 1666 Perspectives to include: Samuel Pepys (eyewitness diarist), baker Thomas Farriner, Londoner fleeing the fire, King Charles II Significance claim: The Great Fire destroyed most of medieval London and led to fundamental changes in building regulations, fire-fighting and urban planning that shaped the modern city.

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Why this study matters

The Great Fire is the most widely taught KS1 event beyond living memory because it offers a dramatic, visually engaging narrative with clear cause and consequence, rich primary sources (Pepys' diary, contemporary illustrations), and connection to modern fire safety. The chronological distance (over 350 years) is ideal for developing a sense of historical depth beyond personal experience.

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Pitfalls to avoid

Focusing only on the drama of the fire rather than analysing cause and consequence

Not helping pupils understand the chronological distance: 1666 is a very long time ago for a 5-year-old

Treating Pepys' diary as unquestionable truth rather than as one person's perspective

Sensitive content

Fire can be frightening for young children; focus on the human response (helping each other, rebuilding) rather than dwelling on destruction

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Cross-curricular opportunities

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Historical thinking skills (KS1)

These disciplinary skills should be woven through teaching, not taught in isolation:

Change and continuity — Identify what changed and what remained constant across historical periods; assess the pace, nature and extent of change; distinguish between long-term trends and short-term fluctuations; understand that change can be experienced differently by different groups within the same society.

Causation and consequence — Understand why historical events and changes happened by identifying and explaining multiple causes; assess the intended and unintended consequences of events and decisions; distinguish between long-term structural factors and immediate triggers; construct causal arguments using historical evidence.

Historical evidence — Locate, select and use a range of primary and secondary historical sources; understand provenance and evaluate a source's utility and reliability in relation to a specific enquiry; corroborate claims across multiple sources; recognise that all sources are partial and that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Similarity and difference — Identify and explain similarities and differences within and across historical periods, societies and cultures; avoid anachronism by understanding people's lives and choices within their own contexts; make valid comparisons that illuminate both the distinctiveness of periods and the common threads of human experience.

Historical significance — Assess the significance of historical events, people and developments using explicit criteria such as scale of impact, duration, number of people affected, degree of change caused, and how an event is remembered and commemorated; understand that significance is not fixed but is constructed and contested by historians and societies over time.

Historical interpretation — Understand that historical accounts are constructed interpretations rather than neutral records; explain how and why different historians produce different accounts of the same events by reference to their questions, evidence, perspectives and contexts; evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of competing interpretations; construct and communicate argued historical interpretations of one's own.

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Vocabulary word mat

Prior knowledge (retrieval plan)

Pupils should already know the following from earlier units:

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Scaffolding and inclusion (Y1)

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Knowledge organiser

Period: 1666 Key terms:

fire

diary

eyewitness

bakery

cathedral

spread

destroyed

rebuilt

brick

stone

Timeline / key events:

Fire starts in Pudding Lane bakery 2 September 1666

Fire spreads across the City over 4 days

Old St Paul's Cathedral destroyed

Fire extinguished 5 September 1666

Key figures: Samuel Pepys, Thomas Farriner, King Charles II Core facts (expected standard):

Historical Sources and Evidence: Using more than one source to find out about a historical event or person, and recognising that sources can tell us different things.

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Graph context

Node type: HistoryStudy | Study ID: HS-KS1-002 Concept IDs:

HI-KS1-C004: Historical Sources and Evidence (primary)

HI-KS1-C001: Time and Chronology

HI-KS1-C002: Change and Continuity

HI-KS1-C005: Local and National History

Cypher query:

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Generated from the UK Curriculum Knowledge Graph — zero LLM generation.