Australia’s first comprehensive education resource to represent same-sex parented families.
The School Action Toolkit is a Health and Physical Education / PDHPE (Y5–10) resource that explores family diversity in a fun & insightful way, using stories drawn from GAYBY BABY. Beyond the classroom, it provides staff with strategies to make their school community a safe & inclusive space for all students & their families.
This Supplementary Video Kit complements the free, downloadable School Action Toolkit resource which is tailored to meet the achievement standards and content of the Health and Physical Education learning area of the Australian curriculum and PDHPE in NSW for Years 5-10.
The supplementary video kit encourages insightful, manageable conversations based on the real life experiences of children being raised by same-sex attracted parents and explores the universal challenges and transitions that students will go through as they move through adolescence.
The Supplementary Video Kit contains:
Want extra family diversity posters to display at your school or organisation? Click here to purchase a 5 or 10 pack, or save on postage and add the posters to your supplementary video kit order!
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GAYBY BABY’s School Action Toolkit is linked to the Health and Physical Education learning area of the Australian Curriculum and PDHPE in NSW for years 5-10. The resource may also be extended for use in Humanities and English classes.
It includes:
The video stimulus material encourages insightful, manageable conversations based on the real life experiences of children being raised by same-sex attracted parents and explores the universal challenges and transitions that students will go through as they move through adolescence.
In the 2016 Census there were:
46,800 same-sex couple
households in Australia
10,050 children aged under 25 years living in same-sex couple households in Australia, with the majority of these in NSW.
These figures are a conservative indication as they only capture families in which two people self-identified as being in a same-sex or de facto relationship. This means it does not include any single-parent families where the parent identifies as same-sex attracted.
“I think if this film had been shown and my type of family had been known about at school, I wouldn’t have had to lie. I wouldn’t have had to make up stories about what my family was, and who the other woman was who was living with us. School would have been easier. I could have been honest and open with myself and my friends. It would have made a huge difference to my learning as a kid.”
– Jesse, 23 yrs, Gayby
A young person’s family is central to their understanding of their own identity. When students see a family like theirs reflected in their school environment, it increases feelings of validation, safety and acceptance. This positively impacts their academic motivation and social wellbeing1.
Beyond the classroom, the School Action Toolkit encourages a whole school approach to welcoming diverse families in the school community. This is important, as there is an ever-growing demographic of children with same-sex attracted parents and/or non-traditional, ‘modern’ families…
To be a welcoming and safe school, you need to support students from diverse families as you would those from traditional families. The School Action Toolkit provides you with strategies to confidently provide this support.
1 See ‘An Introduction to Welcoming Schools’ (URL below) or read the toolkit for full list of academic papers which detail the social, educational and emotional benefits of inclusive classrooms; http://www.hrc.org/files/images/general/An_Introduction_to_Welcoming_Schools.pdf
What is a modern family? The structure and composition of Australian families is rapidly changing across the board. Some children are experiencing a number of family transitions and structures before they reach adolescence. Statistics on Australian families from the 2016 Census indicate:
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