In small groups we discussed the question, ‘Did more good or more bad things come from The Great Fire of London?’              

We practised using the talk skills that we have been learning this term;

• using sentence stems
• showing others that we are listening

After sharing our ideas and opinions with our group, we then voted with our feet to show whether we thought more good things or more bad things came from the fire. We then gave reasons for our decisions, trying to persuade people on the other side to change their mind.

Some of our ideas:

“I think there were more good things that came from the fire because they had a new sewage system and this got rid of the rats and the plague, and they built better houses.”

“In my opinion, the houses were better because they were made out of brick, and they were safer from the fire.”

“Perhaps lots of animals would have died, which is a bad thing because birds are good for the environment.”

“I think they would have planted more trees though, which is good for the birds.”

“In my opinion, it was more bad things because the people of London had to live in tents for 8 years and that’s a long time.”

After our debate we then reflected on our talk skills and what makes ‘good talk’. We shared the problems we had when talking in our groups; everyone talking at the same time and people not talking about the question. We used these problems to write our new Talk Rules for the class.