Wirral school commemorates anniversary of Titanic sinking with some learning their relatives were onboard ship

May 2 2012 by Linda Foo Guest, Heswall News

THINGWALL primary school commemorated the anniversary of the Titanic sinking with a special history lesson.

A Titanic day of events made up the timetable – learning about the passenger liner’s fateful voyage and how it was reported.

One pupil was amazed to find that a story about her auntie’s great-grandfather Second Officer Charles Lightoller had been included in the recent BBC drama.

Mr Lightoller survived the disaster, helping with the evacuation of passengers into lifeboats before helping other survivors onto another overturned lifeboat.

Some schoolchildren built model boats, while others recorded their own modern-day twists on news reports of the disaster, experiencing first-hand how the media reports such tragedies. The whole school wore blue on the day, to represent the sea.

Headteacher Danielle Cronin said: “Every child has heard of the Titanic, and the centenary of its sinking is an important occasion that we wanted to use to educate the pupils about the disaster.

“The children took the lead on creating their own accounts of the tragedy, putting themselves in the place of survivors and at the same time learning about the way the disaster was reported.

“We’ve also had one or two surprises from children with relatives who were actually on the Titanic.”