Our understanding of the world and our place in it is largely shaped by history. We can look back and be inspired by past people’s innovation and tenacity and learn from their mistakes. As primary school teachers, it’s our responsibility to encourage a love of history in young minds and ensure it comes to life for them in the classroom. Teachers are already very short of time, so the best way to ensure your history lessons cover that national curriculum and inspire your pupils can be to use a primary history scheme of work.

The Great Fire of London has been a staple in the KS1 history curriculum for decades. Why? Because it’s an exciting and dynamic story that captures the attention of young children and impacted London, and the country, in a way that can be seen today.

History teaches us empathy, provides perspective on our own lives, and allows us to learn from the successes and failures of others. History is critically important to the development of our society and our children, but how interested people are in history often depends on how engagingly it was taught to them at school.

History, like any story, is only boring when it is badly told. This certainly extends into the classroom in school history lessons, where history can be brought to life for students, inciting a life-long passion, or appear completely irrelevant to their current lives.