Children at a school less than a mile away from the site of London’s largest grass fire showed their gratitude to firefighters and police officers by making colourful thank you notes.

Aldersbrook Primary School took the opportunity to teach pupils about the work of the hundreds of firefighters and police officers who attended the fire in Wanstead Flats on Sunday, July 15.

After the youngsters had drawn pictures of the emergency services hard at work and wrote messages, Merryn McKenna, five, and Gabriella Eley, eight, gathered the letters together to present them to officers.

The pair surprised Sergeant Brown and PC Hopkins, who were stationed at one of the roads which had been closed, and asked them to deliver the notes to the control centre for all officers to enjoy.

Carly Eley, reception teacher at the school in Harpenden Road, Wanstead, said: “Many of the children live very close to the affected area and some were evacuated.

“They wanted to show their gratitude to our emergency services for their hard work and really enjoyed writing the letters.”

The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon and engulfed 100 hectares of the open space, making it the capital’s largest ever grass fire.