Year 5 Topics Lesson: Titanic Trip

On Monday 15 November, the students from Year 5 set off on an educational visit around Jinji Lake. The purpose of the visit was to take part in activities that passengers who boarded the Titanic in 1912 would have experienced. In First Class, students were taught etiquette including how to sit properly and how to have appropriate conversations during afternoon tea; In Second Class, students were introduced to a series of games that would have been popular during this period in history; Third class passengers practiced traditional dances, set to folk music.

As part of their unit, students have been exploring mistakes from the past.  Importantly, the students have been asking themselves the question: ‘How can we learn from the mistakes of the past’.  This unit is often one of the most talked about by the cohort and this educational visit will further cement the opinion that this period of learning is incredibly fun, but also a unit of reflection.

Prior to the visit, students were transported back to 1912 using green-screen technology. As part of the green-screen photographs, students were photographed on RMS Titanic’s Grand Staircase.  Upon conclusion of their boat tour of Jinji Lake, students returned to school incredibly happy and excited to continue their exploration of this unit.

This education trip is a perfect example of the theory of cross-disciplinary education which we emphasise a lot at Dulwich College Suzhou. It combines multiple subjects together including English writing, history learning, research, science and so on and children learn from the holistic approach in the wonderful experience.

Of the trip, one student said: “This trip really helped me understand the differences between the passengers and the kinds of experiences they would have had. I feel happy knowing that they’d have had fun on board the boat before the disaster occurred.”

- From Mr David Cairns, Head of Year 5