The Titanic primary resource

Learn all about this legendary ship and its tragic end…

This primary resource helps children learn about the Titanic: the famous ocean liner that sank into the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. When did the Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage? Why did the Titanic sink? How many passengers survived?

Pupils will learn all about this historical ship in our National Geographic Kids primary resource, including the Titanic’s design and structure, how and why it sank, and what the passengers experienced during the tragic event.

The teaching resource can be used as a printed handout for each pupil to review and annotate, or for display on the interactive whiteboard using the images included in the resource for class discussion.

Activity: Ask pupils to imagine that they are reporters working for a newspaper at the time of the Titanic’s maiden voyage. The pupils could write a newspaper article about the maritime disaster using the information in our primary resources, together with their own research. Encourage them to be imaginative and creative, too — they could include interviews/quotes from survivors, as well as their own drawings and pictures.

N.B. The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the English National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email: schools@ngkids.co.uk

This History primary resource assists with teaching the following History objectives from the National Curriculum:

Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative

Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

National Curriculum Key Stage 1 History objective: