ACTF News

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.

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