Our story
Following an eye-opening trip to Antarctica in 2005, Jason Kimberley founded Cool Australia. The goal? To turn a passion for equitable, real-world education into tangible global impact.
Since 2008, over 220,000 Australian educators have signed-up to teach with Cool.org teaching resources in their classrooms. The result? Better student engagement and a greater understanding of critical environmental and social issues.
An organisation that started with humble beginnings has grown into something much bigger. Cool.org is the evolution of a simple, yet important idea; that our educators, and our kids, deserve the best.
Why we exist
Student Benefits
| Indicator | All |
|---|---|
| Knowledge, confidence, and skills in environmental/social issues have improved | 78% |
| Attitude towards environmental/social issues has changed | 75% |
| Engage in independent learning by investigating further what they have learned | 58% |
| Take action on environmental/social issues at school | 66% |
| Discuss what they have learned with friends and family | 53% |
| Engagement levels in their learning have increased | 76% |
| Are more hopeful about the future | 59% |
Most important issues in Australia
From the Mission Australia Youth Survey
1. Our
Environment
2. Equity and Discrimination
3. The Economy & Financial Matters
4. Mental
Health
Hope and Action: Our DNA
The Cool.org Hope Framework
We understand our responsibility when tackling sensitive and potentially distressing topics. We have created the Cool.org Hope Framework to use when discussing challenging issues to ensure psychological safety for teachers and students.
The Cool.org Act Framework
The Cool.org Act Framework supports strategies for enabling action at various levels and configurations. You can grab an approach to take action quickly or work towards taking action at a greater scale.
Our leadership
Our board
What educators say:
“
There is so much that is demanded of teachers now, and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The Cool resources are planned with every aspect of the curriculum in mind, so we can rest easy and teach with confidence that we are meeting the needs of students and the curriculum.
“Primary Teacher, QLD “
Cool Australia, one of the coolest sites to save time and find interesting, relevant and impactful lessons and ideas. When you’re looking for differentiated learning its a real winner!
“Primary Teacher, VIC “
I would like my children to look at the world with optimism, and not cynicism. Perhaps it’s naive but to some extent I feel that the weight of the world is on their shoulders and it is our duty to make them feel hope in the world that they can be part of action and change. Cool allows teachers a jumping off point for this
“Primary Teacher, NSW