ACTF News
February 6th 2023
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The value of children’s television in our schools

As well as being engaging and entertaining, Australian children’s television stories have educational, social and cultural value for children. When used in teaching settings, they can support, extend and consolidate students’ knowledge on a broad range of topics right across the Australian curriculum.

To deliver educational outcomes through the high-quality content in our catalogue, the ACTF develops educational resources and events that are aligned to the Australian Curriculum and designed to support learning in the classroom.

And the benefits of using screen content in Australian classrooms extend far beyond those experienced by students. The ACTF education offering ensures that the programs we support have a broader reach than just through broadcast channels, and are often used in educational settings for years or even decades – longer than they may air on television. In addition, our virtual workshops introduce students to creatives in the screen industry, which not only develops their media literacy skills and knowledge of production, but can inspire them to pursue a career in the industry.

Here are some of our most recent teaching resources, designed to support teachers from Foundation through to Year 12 across a range of subjects.

Kangaroo Beach Teaching Toolkit

The Kangaroo Beach Teaching Toolkit is a learning resource that can help teachers educate Foundation to Year 2 students on water safety through the popular animated television series Kangaroo Beach, produced by Cheeky Little Media for the ABC. Learning tasks, worksheets and selected clips align to strands in the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework.

The water safety advice in the resource has been reviewed and endorsed by Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA).  

The PM's Daughter Teaching Toolkit

The ACTF partnered with the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD) to create two educational resources which help to teach primary and secondary students about politics and democracy through the political comedy-drama series The PM’s Daughter, produced by Fremantle for the ABC. Using the resources, educators can teach students about their role as active members of the democratic community.

MaveriX Teaching Resource

To be a motocross champion takes skill, courage, strategy, and heart. The MaveriX teaching resource is aimed at developing students’ teamwork and leadership knowledge and skills through the adrenaline-fuelled adventure series MaveriX, produced by Brindle Films for the ABC and Netflix. Each of the 10 lessons incorporates curriculum links and focuses on themes including conflict resolution, goal setting and valuing diverse perspectives.

More Than This Teaching Resource

Secondary teachers across Australia now have access to a new resource to safely explore challenging topics with teenage students, including consent and respectful relationships, with a digital learning resource created for the ground-breaking teen drama series More Than This, produced by Baby Banksia for Paramount+. The Australian Children’s Television Foundation collaborated with Queer Town to create the comprehensive resource, which is designed to empower young people to navigate and explore adolescence. The learning resource provides students and educators with five digital lessons which explore the topics of: identity and belonging; gender identity and sexuality; consent and respectful relationships; family, peer and academic pressures; and mental health.

See also:

July 12th 2024

Meet Australian Olympian swimmer, Wilhelmina Wylie

Do your students know the story of ‘Mina’ Wylie, one of our first female Olympians? 

July 12th 2024

New release: Windcatcher learning resource

Our latest resource provides sequenced learning tasks to complement and extend a class or cohort screening of the feature film, Windcatcher.

July 12th 2024

Coming soon to cinemas: Runt film adaptation

Written by Craig Silvey and illustrated by Sara Acton, the novel Runt was published in 2022 and was named the 2023 Book of the Year for Younger Readers by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Australian schools will soon have the chance to enjoy this story on screen.

June 28th 2024

NSW Year 9 English unit: ‘Exploring the Speculative’

The New South Wales Department of Education has featured episodes of the comedy-horror series Crazy Fun Park in resources designed for the Year 9, Term 4 program 'Exploring the Speculative'.  

June 13th 2024

ACTF welcomes additional funding and new Board member

It has been an eventful month for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) with the announcement of additional funding, a meeting with the federal Minister for the Arts, and a new Board member appointed by the Federal Government.

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