Kidsnews.com.au is a FREE teaching resource available to all schools in Australia. It is proudly produced by media group News Corp Australia under its News in the Community program. It began in 2017.
Kidsnews.com.au is aimed at students from Years 3-8 and is a ready-to-go resource allowing teachers and students to use current news in the classroom.
It helps increase literacy levels whilst improving children’s general knowledge and thirst for information, teaching them the importance of relying on trusted news sources.
Kidsnews.com.au is currently used in schools across all Australian states. The site attracted more than 12.5 million page views and almost 2 million unique visitors in 2021.
The content — sourced from News Corp Australia’s national stable of newspapers and websites — is repurposed into child-appropriate language and censored to remove inappropriate content or imagery. The site is presented in a safe online environment that does not link to any outside news sources or sites.
THE ARTICLES
Two to three news articles on a range of subjects are added each school day. Key topics include:
| Animals | Sport | Indigenous News | Environment | Science |
| Technology | Humanities | Civics | History | Geography |
| Maths | Weather | Space | Explainers | Money |
| Safe Kids | Education Kits | Health | Just for Fun Arts | Arts |
READING LEVELS
Each
article — rated as either easy (GREEN), intermediate (ORANGE) or complex (RED) includes:
+ Headline, images and text
+ An audio file so students can listen to the text as they read
+ Glossary of terms and words that students might be unfamiliar with
+ A poll to encourage them to think more deeply about the story
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES ON EACH STORY
Classroom activities are written by teachers for teachers and linked to the Australian curriculum. There are two classroom activities, plus a VCOP activity, on every story.
ARCHIVE
Kids News has a rich collection of more than 5000 archive stories filtered under each category and colour coding.
SPELLING BEE
It follows on from other initiatives including:
- The free Kids News book club
- Short Story writing competition held annually
HOW TO SIGN UP
Teachers can register FREE on kidsnews.com.au – the sign-up box is found on the right-hand side at the top.
