We acknowledge and respect the Traditional Owners of lands across Australia, their Elders, Ancestors, cultures and heritage, and recognise the continuing sovereignties of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations.

We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land on which the ACTF is based and pay our respect to their Elders past and present.

We are honoured to have the opportunity to learn from the oldest cultural storytellers in the world and seek to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to share their rich culture and perspectives with children in Australia and around the world via stories on screen.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, film, audio recordings or text.

Examine the Mystery Genre with The Inbestigators

Learning tasks in The Inbestigators Teaching Toolkit will help Year 3-6 students to better comprehend the mystery genre, teaching them to read and think like a detective.

In The Inbestigators, puzzle prodigy Maudie solves a crime on her ﬁrst day at school with her new classmates Ezra, Ava and Kyle, the future becomes obvious: the four children must form a detective agency together. Operating out of the granny ﬂat in Ezra’s backyard, these funny and disparate kids from Grade Five solve one thorny school playground or neighbourhood mystery after another, and become best friends in the process.

Mystery series like The Inbestigators are so engaging partly because they position readers as active participants in solving a crime. They put themselves in the detectives' shoes and collect clues alongside them, paying close attention to what the detective thinks, sees, does, and says.

In our newly released Teaching Toolkit for this series, Year 3-6 students will practise making inferences, examine plot, and more. Tasks will help students to understand the mystery genre, and build the knowledge and skills necessary for them to craft their own engaging mystery stories.

Lessons can be approached individually or incorporated into a longer unit on the mystery genre. Learning tasks in The Inbestigators Teaching Toolkit are aligned to the Australian Curriculum, with links made to English, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability.

Download this free teaching resource from the ACTF now.