Let's tell the story of a
The Telling Your Stories Project supports Australian public schools to embed local history, culture, and community voice into everyday teaching and learning. By co-constructing a place-based story unique to each school, the project strengthens student engagement, literacy development, and sense of belonging for all.
When learners see their own landscape, community, and lived experiences reflected in text, learning becomes more meaningful. Students are not just consuming stories, they are contributing to them. This increases motivation, deepens comprehension, and strengthens oral and written language skills across year levels.
For schools, the project provides a practical and authentic way to align with the Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. The process encourages and supports respectful collaboration with local communities and ensures cultural perspectives are embedded, not added as an afterthought.
Through its strong values of curiosity, connection and care, the project strengthens school–community partnerships. Families, Elders, and local knowledge holders may choose to be active contributors, fostering pride and shared ownership of the final resources. Through this process, everyone learns more about each other.
More than a book, TYS becomes a sustainable and living resources, a reflection of school identity, and a legacy document that future cohorts can connect with supporting both academic growth and cultural understanding.
Public School
Why Public Schools Choose Telling Your Stories
For Students: Belonging, Identity & Voice
This work strengthens student engagement through meaningful, place-based learning while building a stronger sense of belonging and identity. Students are positioned as storytellers, researchers and knowledge contributors, embedding local history and community knowledge into their everyday learning. It celebrates diversity within the school community, increases pride in school culture and local heritage, and supports the integration of new families into the Australian school system and wider community.
For Teachers and Curriculum: Culture & Connection
The initiative aligns authentically with the Australian Curriculum, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority, ensuring rigorous and meaningful learning. It supports culturally responsive and inclusive pedagogy while strengthening partnerships with families, Elders and local community members. It also empowers teachers who are new arrivals to the school or area, providing shared context, community understanding and curriculum confidence.
For School and Legacy: Celebration & Community
This approach creates a lasting school resource that reflects the school’s unique identity and leaves a legacy publication for future cohorts. It develops a way to continually document and respond to each year and significant events in the life of the school. The resource can be shared with the wider community during important milestones, such as a Centennial, reinforcing pride, continuity and connection across generations.
Everything you need to tell the story of YOUR SCHOOL
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A story written by professional learning designers about your school & place
We'll facilitate everything you need to tell the story of your place. We'll organise a meeting with your stakeholders and community, research the history, and craft a story that is perfect for classrooms - from Early Childhood right up to Secondary Students. You have the final say - what do the kids of this place NEED to know?
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8 bespoke illustrations created for storytelling
Taking your awesome story, we give it to an illustrator who designs a series of images that you can tell the story from. A picture says a thousand words, and images are an excellent way to introduce the idea of complexity and perspective to older students, while also allowing an easy gateway to historical topics for younger learners.
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A suite of teaching resources designed to inspire curriculum integration
We give you everything you need to teach and integrate your story:
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Downloadable PDFs
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Hardcover Books*
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Voice Over Videos
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Reference Lists with Links to research
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Pedagogy Support
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Indigenous Vocabulary Lists*
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Translations into home languages*
Story Sample
The Story of
Tidbinbilla School
The Brindabella Ranges leaned close to the old Yellow Box and spoke on the wind.
“We have watched you grow for more than a century,” they murmured. “Your roots hold the soil of this valley, just as our ridgelines hold the sky. Together we have seen Country cared for by the Ngunnawal, Ngunawal, Ngambri and Kamberri peoples, and together we have felt the changes: hotter summers, harder ground, rushing water.”
“But you are not alone, old friend,” the Ranges whispered.
“Children from Tidbinbilla School walk these paths now. They are learning. They are planting. They are listening. And that gives us hope.”
*This sample is based on an excerpt from a real project but names and details have been changed to protect the school's IP
