August is a busy month in the education calendar, with events – including Census Night, National Science Week, Bullying No Way Week, and Children’s Book Week – taking place around Australia. 

Scootle has a wide range of quality, curriculum-aligned, free resources to help your students participate, explore, and learn. Log in or register in Scootle to access the following freely available resources. 

Census Night 11 August 2026

Use these lessons from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to teach middle-years students how and why Census data is used to create a 5-year snapshot of Australia’s population. 

Support students’ understanding of key data terms with this quick guide glossary from the ABS, or take the census learning in a different direction with an analysis of whale populations or sunspots in space. 

National Science Week 15–23 August 2026 

This year’s focus invites students to explore the power of curiosity, inquiry, and shared learning in growing scientific understanding. These inclusive new ‘Get into STEM’ resources support Foundation–Year 2 students to investigate making sound, growing food, or finding ways to shelter from the weather. 

Bullying No Way Week 17–21 August 2026 

‘Small Acts, Big Impact’ is the theme of this national week of action.  

The Bullying No Way video collection encourages young people, schools, families, and communities to support others, speak up when they see bullying, and practice kindness in everyday actions.  

The animation series Be kind online shows Years 3–10 students how to block content, report it, and support each other if they see or experience cyberbullying. 

Other useful resources can be found at Kids Helpline . 

Children’s Book Week 22–28 August 2026 

Help create a ‘Symphony of Stories’ in your classroom using these teaching notes for shortlisted CBCA texts: 

• For early childhood readers: The colours of home – explores themes of home, migration, change, open-mindedness, perspective, memories, and colour. 

• For middle-years readers: Run – explores themes of survival, trust, and family loyalty in the high-stakes setting of the wild. 

• For older readers: This stays between us – explores themes of friendship, women and empowerment in the context of a horror genre story. 

There are many more curriculum-aligned resources on Scootle to explore. Log in or register to browse and search for resources to support your teaching and learning program. 

The CCE Hub newsletter has launched! 

The Civics and Citizenship Education Hub (CCE Hub) have launched a newsletter. The CCE Hub offers resources and professional development to support you in teaching students about how parliament works, democratic values and what it means to become active, informed citizens. The newsletter will feature news, updates, classroom resources and practical ideas for Civics education in the classroom. 

Subscribe to the CCE newsletter

If you missed our March 2026 Scootle webinars, you can now watch both sessions on demand and pick up practical strategies you can use straight away in the classroom.

Getting started with Scootle in the primary classroom

This session focuses on helping primary teachers quickly find relevant resources, organise them, and share them with students and colleagues. It’s a straightforward walkthrough designed to build confidence using Scootle in day to day teaching.

Watch the recording: Scootle primary classroom webinar recording

Using Scootle in secondary maths and science

For secondary teachers, this session explores how to locate subject specific resources and apply them in maths and science contexts. The focus is on finding the right content efficiently and using it to support teaching and learning.

Watch the recording: Scootle secondary maths and science webinar recording

Both webinars are hands on and classroom focused, with practical approaches you can apply immediately. They are also aligned with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, making them a useful addition to your professional learning.

If you are looking for ways to make better use of Scootle, or to support colleagues in doing the same, these recordings are a good place to start.

With the busyness of Term 1 in full swing, Scootle saves you valuable time by curating free, curriculum-aligned resources from a range of providers from around Australia and beyond.  

This month, we have curated resources for Harmony Week and International Women’s Day, along with materials celebrating the work of Alison Lester, whose picture book Magic Beach was recently voted Best Picture Book of All Time. 

Login or register now to access the materials linked in this email, and many more.  

Magic Beach, Alison Lester’s classic picture book celebrating the wonders of nature, has been voted Best Picture Book of All Time by Guardian Australia readers. 

• Year 1 students can explore imagination, rhyme, repetition and setting in two Alison Lester texts, ‘Imagine’ and ‘Magic Beach’, through a 10-lesson sequence Alison Lester author study.  (Arc, Vic DoE)   

• Alison Lester – writing your own books is a 12-video resource suitable for Year 3-6 students, in which Alison Lester discusses aspects of her creative processes and guides students to create a book using digital technologies. It can be used to teach specific aspects of creative writing or illustrating. (NSW Gov) 

Harmony Week (17–23 March) celebrates diversity, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. 

• Schools Standing up to Racism provides lesson plans suitable for primary school students. The Foundation-Year 2 and Year 3-4 units explore similarities and differences across cultural groups and practices and how these might be appreciated. The Year 5-6 unit explores implicit bias, including through literature and media. (Centre of Multicultural Youth) 

• Let’s talk about racism helps Year 3-6 students understand racism as a form of discrimination, explaining what it can look like, its impacts and what students can do to stop racism. (Australian Human Rights Commission) 

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender equality. 

• Gender Equality – Global Awareness & Understanding Lesson helps Year 3-6 students to understand what gender stereotyping is, and to consider ways in which gender inequality is enacted. (Action for Agriculture) 

• In Mission: Gender Equality Year 7-8 students explore the definition of gender equality, its causes and consequences, and ways of promoting the concept. (World’s Largest Lesson). 

• In Lesson Eight SDG #5: Gender Equality Year 9-10 students explore United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender Equality. They research, watch videos, and engage in discussions to understand the importance of empowering women and girls for stability in societies. (World Affairs Council) 

You can find these resources together in a specially created Learning Path. 

New resources are regularly added to the Scootle collection. Login to see the latest free, curriculum-aligned resources for Australian educators. 

It’s that time of year again! You’ve got a new class, a new timetable, or a whole new role to figure out! But whether you’re looking for resources to help you through the first term, or plan for the whole year, Scootle has you covered! 

Login or register to explore the collection and find great resources to kickstart your planning for 2026. It’s free! 

Subject-specific learning sequences 

These subject-specific collections are jam-packed with lesson ideas, supportive pedagogy and classroom-ready resources for your students. We’ve picked a resource or two from each suite to get you started. 

• reSolve mathematics lesson sequences are inquiry-based and aligned to the Australian Curriculum from F-10, and have professional learning integrated, in context, in the lessons. 
  Check out the Year 6 sequence Statistics: Loopy aeroplanes as a great context for classroom statistical investigations, or Mathematical modelling: Playing with fire for Year 9, which uses simulations and modelling to make decisions about bushfire predictions. 

• The Literacy Hub is a huge resource for literacy professional learning and effective practice – but did you know that it recently published a new set of downloadable phonics lesson packs for Foundation to Year 2? Find them here: Phonics and morphology lesson packs for teachers 

• The Australian Sports Commission has partnered with national sporting organisations to present a selection of lesson plans for primary school covering 18 different sports. Scope out the Netball lesson plans, and browse the whole suite while you’re there. 

• These Global Education lesson plans for Years 3 to 10 explore what it means to be a solutions-focused global citizen and are aligned to HASS, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, and History, with links to Science. Challenge your students to engage with global issues such as Working together: gender equity or Environmental resilience. 

Cross-curricular resource banks for planning and teaching 

We’d like to share the large resource collections on Scootle that cover a range of curricula and year levels. Remember – these are all free, quality resources that are curated for you by teachers in the Scootle team. 

• There are over 2000 free F to 10 lesson plans published on Arc across English, Maths, Science and Design technologies – with more being published regularly!  

This lesson sequence engages Year 1 students in the fascinating mechanics of popup books and is a great way to bring Design and technology into your classroom. 
Or for the Year 8 science classroom, this Introducing cells sequence will get your students started with using microscopes and drawing what they see. 

• The OER Project hosts a plethora of teaching and learning resources focusing on Historical thinking skills and climate futures. This lesson about historical scale will help your students compare the timescale of their own lives verses the billions of years of Earth’s history. 

New resources are regularly being added to the Scootle collection. Login to see the latest free, curriculum-aligned resources for Australian educators. 

Learning paths make it easy to organise digital resources into a clear, structured sequence that supports student learning. They help you bring together multiple types of digital resources into guided progressions to use with your students.

Learning paths are flexible and classroom ready. You can:

• curate resources that build knowledge step by step
• personalise instructions, questions and context for your class
• reorder items to support a logical learning journey
• share a single PIN so students can access everything without logging in

They can also be edited to create student activities and curated, annotated topic-based lists that are easily exported and shared by email or PDF.

If you want to see exactly how to create one, watch the short video at the top of this page. It walks through the process and shows how to get started.

Scootle’s shared learning paths also offer a growing shared collection created by educators across Australia, check them out on the Scootle website!

Finding reliable, curriculum-aligned digital resources can be time consuming. Scootle brings everything together in one place, giving educators fast access to high-quality, classroom-ready materials that support the Australian Curriculum.

If you’re new to Scootle, watch the video above for a quick guide to accessing the portal and creating your account.

Register today!

Why register?

Registered educators can:

• access the full catalogue of free digital resources
• save favourites and create personalised collections
• build learning paths for students
• browse interactives, games, videos and lesson materials across all subjects

Who can register?

Scootle is free for educators working in Australian schools and student teachers.

How to register

There are two ways to sign up:

• Education network login: If your school is part of an eligible Australian education network, you may be able to log in using your existing credentials.
• Self registration: Educators in independent schools and preservice teachers can register with a .edu.au email address.

Having trouble registering with the email you use for teaching? You can contact us for support.

Not a practising or preservice teacher? You can still browse using guest access.

Browse today!

Now, perhaps more than ever, our students are impacted by global trends and events and need tools to understand what is going on in the world. This month, we focus on the theme of global education and some resources that will help you embed global perspectives in your planning for 2026. 

Login now or register to access free, curriculum-aligned materials linked in this email, and many more!  

New teaching units 

Hot off the press is a set of curriculum-aligned classroom resources focusing on Australia and our immediate neighbours in the Indo-Pacific.  All units include lesson plans and student worksheets. 

• In Our global responsibilities Year 10 students explore the cooperative and diplomatic processes that countries adhere to when working together on global issues. 

• Working together: gender equity helps Year 10 students to investigate the ways in which Australians work with neighbouring countries to promote greater gender equality.  

• Via a Year 7/8 unit titled Environmental resilience , students investigate the sustainable development of Pacific Island nations and develop an environmental resilience scenario-based strategy.   

• Our Indo-Pacific community supports Year 3/4 students to explore the geographical and cultural diversity of the region and create a proposal for a hypothetical partnership project. 

Stay Tuned to our Planet (STTOP) 

Find lessons on a variety of Global Ed themes including Support All Life – Future Foods; You and Your Community – Energy use;  Innovation and Creativity – Upcycling; and You and Your Community – Waste. Age levels of the lessons vary according to topic.  

Develop your teaching practices with Global Ed  

• Global Education hosts a framework for global education, a Teaching Strategies PDF and appropriate Thinking Tools templates. 

• Media Literacy for Global Education: Toolkit for Youth Multipliers explains how these concepts are connected and ideas for working with students.  

• SDG Lesson Plans for New Zealand Teachers focuses on themes from the Sustainable Development Goals (“Sustainable food”, “Cities”, “Women and equality” etc.), providing multiple activities and media sources to help explore that theme. Age levels of the lessons vary according to topic. 

• Active Citizens: Globally connected, locally engaged is designed for use with adults, however some of the learning activities are suitable for use in secondary classrooms. Find learning activities exploring identity, cultural understandings, managing difference and conflict. 

As winter gives way to spring in the south and those in the north of Australia prepare for the wet season, it’s the perfect time to explore Scootle’s engaging, curriculum-aligned resources on weather and seasons, curated together in a Weather and Seasons Learning Path.

Indigenous seasons

Explore Indigenous perspectives on seasonal change through a range of curriculum resources: 

• For students in Foundation to Year 8, Indigenous weather knowledge (Bureau of Meteorology) offers an interactive map of traditional weather and climate knowledge.
• The video series Many lands, many seasons (ABC Education) introduces Year 5–8 students to six Aboriginal seasonal calendars, providing rich cultural insights.
• Seven seasons (Digital Technologies Hub) is an investigation for Year 9–10 students into Indigenous seasonal calendars. Based on their findings, students develop a searchable database.

Interactive maps and data

Interactive tools and datasets offer students hands-on opportunities to explore weather and climate patterns: 

• Wind, rain, and temperature maps (Ventusky) offers an engaging way for Year 4–10 students to explore real-time and forecasted meteorological conditions through dynamic, easy-to-read visuals.
• For Year 7–8, Climate data online (Bureau of Meteorology) provides access to historical weather records and climate statistics dating back to the 1800s.
• Weather forecast from the stratosphere (Digital Technologies Hub) introduces Year 7–8 students to data analysis using real weather balloon data and spreadsheets.

Activities

Students can deepen their understanding of Earth’s systems and climate through a variety of engaging lessons and activities: 

• In The earth’s rotation and climate (Geo Foundations), Year 3–4 students explore how Earth’s orbit around the Sun influences patterns and variations on our planet.
• Year 5 students can collect and analyse historical weather data in Statistics: Time to play (reSolve).
• GeogSpace: Weather maps and Climate graphs has been developed to support Year 7–9 students in constructing and interpreting data to better understand weather and climate systems. (Education Services Australia)

Learning sequences

We have curated a range of learning sequences to help students explore the impact of weather and climate on daily life.  

• For Foundation–Year 2, Daily seasonal changes (Vic Gov), Any day outdoors (Primary Connections), and Weather and seasons of places (Geography Teachers of NSW) guide students in investigating how weather and seasons shape our lives and are a natural feature of environments.
• Australia’s wild, weird, wonderful weather (National Library of Australia) encourages Year 4 students to consider weather and climate from diverse perspectives and historical contexts.
• For Year 7, Sensational seasons (Qld Gov) supports deeper exploration of seasonal patterns and their causes.

New resources are regularly being added to the Scootle collection. Log in to see the latest free, curriculum-aligned resources for Australian educators. 

All around Australia, pies are warming, whistles are blowing, and car horns are tooting —it’s sporting finals season. Whether your team is leading the pack, or your hopes have turned to ‘next time’, Scootle offers a range of curriculum-aligned resources can help motivate your students all the way to the final siren of the school year.

Log in or register to access curriculum-aligned materials.

These game-based activities from the Australian Sports Commission and the New South Wales Department of Education will prime your students for learning:

• Playing for life (Foundation to Year 6)
• Yulunga  (Foundation to Year 10)
• Net and court games (Year 7 and 8)

Engage your middle years students with resources linking sport with maths, science, or digital technology:

• Finger marathon (Year 8)
• Can we help? Donuts and exercise (Year 8)
• Blockly – Sport Micro:Bit (Year 5 and 6)

Go back in time to learn about Australia’s obsession with sport, including exploring its darker side:

• Sport and Australian culture
• ‘Carn a Saints’: Aussie Rules and popular culture 
• 10 treasures of Aussie Rules

Or see how HPE teachers are demonstrating good teaching practices in these Illustrations of Practice.