ACTF News

Kangaroo Beach sees lifeguards Bondi, Sandy and Big Trev impart water safety knowledge and skills that will help keep the young cadets and other beachgoers safe all summer. This means that this popular animated series is not only fun for young children to watch; it also empowers them by modelling safe behaviours in each episode. When co-viewing the series with adults, viewers can ask questions, share their ideas and consolidate their water safety understandings.

To draw out key messages in the series, the ACTF developed the Kangaroo Beach Teaching Toolkit – a classroom-based water safety education resource for F-2 students and teachers. The resource contains eight lesson plans to use alongside school swimming lessons, as part of class inquiries into health and safety, or to address Health and Physical Education curriculum content in an engaging way. The water safety advice in the resource was reviewed and endorsed by Surf Life Saving Australia in early 2023.

Lesson plans correspond to key learning areas in the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework, addressing Hazards and Personal Safety, Entries and Exits, Flotation, Swimming, Underwater, Lifesaving, Rescue, and Survival Sequence. Each lesson identifies a relevant Kangaroo Beach episode and water safety message, lists comprehension questions for the class or individual students, and includes a student activity sheet related to the theme. Lessons are linked to F-2 Health and Physical Education, Media Arts and Personal and Social Capability content descriptors in Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. 

This free resource will improve or consolidate students’ knowledge of safe behaviours around water, empowering them to contribute to their own safety. Download now from the ACTF website. The Kangaroo Beach series can be downloaded (in English or Mandarin) from the ACTF Shop or streamed through ABC iview.

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