Great Fire of London in Year 1

[SleepingStandingUp]

So this weekend it'll be helping my 5 year olds make cardboard houses and then lots of pretend fire burning them down. With my eldest we did a big picture with lots of tissue paper fire and I can honestly say it still feels like such an odd thing to teach 5 year olds about.
Why is it still such a big thing on the primary school curriculum? I just don't really see why we need to be taxing 5 year olds about how London burned down once!
Aibu? Surely there other history that's more age appropriate? I know it's all a big gory etc but I just feel like more sensitive kids might get really disturbed by so much talk about burning houses!

One of the interesting things about TGFoL is the very few casualties considering how wide spread it was.

5 year olds love fire engines and stuff like that don’t they?

I actually think it's great fun and lends itself to many writing genres eg diaries (looking at Samuel Pepy's), writing their own.

He is said to have hidden things that were important to him eg his cheese so they can think about ehay is important to thrm and what they would have buried.

It's interesting looking at house tudor houses were constructed and good fun in art too.

I could go in, but I actually think it's good for ks1

Pretend burn? Hell my sons school set fire to them in the playground gave an accurate representation of how fast fire spreads and how dangerous fire is

I think that would be better, and be a valuable lesson.

Do you think teachers are daft? It will be taught in a way which is age appropriate, no kid will be "disturbed". Has your DC never watched Fireman Sam?

It’s a great topic that kids that age did find interesting but good god, do they not vary the curriculum at all? Mu year 9 DS did it when he was in year 1. The teachers must lose the will to live, although I suppose it saves on the planning.

It destroyed the old wooden, crowded town without much loss of life, as pp said, so it's not really "gory".

My kids school, they do it in Yr1 too. They set fire to them in the playground coinciding with a visit from the local fire engine to out out the fire. One of the highlights of the year!

DD did this is yr1. The class built cardboard houses, and then lined then up in the playground to make a city, and set fire to them. She still talks about how great it was and she's a teenager now 😂

Yes, heaven forbid that children are afraid of fire 🙄
Learning about the great fire of London is not going to traumatise them. It's an age appropriate way to introduce real life issues...sometimes there are disasters and in the past it was much harder to deal with them. If she gets upset take her to a modern day fire station to see how cool the fire engines are.

At that age you really should've talked about what to do in your own home in the event of a fire. Talked through escape routes, getting down low and covering your mouth. Not going back into a burning building etc.

😂brilliant!

I think we did Ancient Egypt (including mummification) and the Roman Empire (including gladiators) at that age.

The Great Fire of London seems positively tame compared to those.

We don't want all history at school to be world war two.

You were all lucky. I went to a Convent School and we learnt about the English Martyrs, in fairly grim detail. I remember drawing a picture of Margaret Clitheroe being crushed to death
I was probably 7.

I’d have TGFoL many times over rather than the bloody Titanic. Which we get in year 1 and year 5. “Come dressed for a day on the Titanic”… what, with seaweed?

(I know why they do it, I still think it’s sick, like our great great grandchildren coming dressed as a millennium business person to think about 9/11)

Oh my god! I laughed at the seaweed, but you're right!

I know it's all a big gory etc but I just feel like more sensitive kids might get really disturbed by so much talk about burning houses!

Then they'll be more sensitive about other subjects too 🤷‍♂️

You can't cater to every individual child OP, and that's an important lesson in itself.

I think the black death is far more gruesome. The pustules, the rats, the name of it, the plague pits.

But these are the kind of things that really spark an interest. No one wants to learn about the treaty of boringland in the year boring66. We want fire, executions, plagues.

I wish our school did proper history like this. DS is in Year 2 and I think would enjoy it more than bringing in baby photos constantly which seems to be all they ever do in history.

I also looked at the KS1 curriculum online and the Great Fire of London is specially mentioned in there.

Yep its fine, as PP have said mine also burnt a city in year 1. They also did lots on fire safety that half term.
Kids need to know what to do and understand the dangers. They are not around fire like they were years ago, so haven't grown up with the same reminders of being careful around it.
My mum grew up with a coal fire,
I grew up with a gas fire, and family with coal still,
DS, DD1 remember gas fires at my grandparents house.
DD2 has no memory of a gas fire,
Lots of houses now only have radiators, so child don't encounter fire as they once did in the home.
Fantastic topic, she will be doing titanic soon

Why London though? Why not the Great fire of Nantwich

Good points about open fires, @itsmeits , we were used to them. Children now, not so much.

Ok, I will be less grumpy about making burning houses. I don't know what what exactly they study but that does seem more interesting than just burning buildings lol

Ok I can see how that went down enthusiastically lol