This year, the Victorian Early Years Awards (VEYA) are celebrating 20 years of recognising the outstanding work by the early years sector to improve the health, learning, development and wellbeing of Victorian children and their families.
Nominations are now open for the 2025 awards. You can nominate yourself, a colleague or an early childhood leader, service or organisation demonstrating leadership, outstanding achievement or driving innovation.
Winners of each category will receive a grant of $15,000 to further develop their initiatives or support their professional development. Finalists in each category are also eligible to win the prestigious Minister’s Award, selected by the Minister for Children, with the winner receiving a $15,000 grant.
If you, your organisation or one you admire is driving positive change, now is the time to shine a spotlight on their impact!
Nominations close at 5 pm on Thursday 12 June 2025.
Award categories
The 9 VEYA categories focus on the following themes:
- improving engagement in early learning
- supporting parents and carers in their role as their child’s first teacher
- building collaborative community partnerships
- improving child health and wellbeing
- supporting continuity of early learning through successful transitions
- recognising an early childhood teacher who demonstrates exemplary practice in early childhood education
- significant improvement in learning and teaching practices
- recognising the importance of Aboriginal inclusion and perspectives in ensuring all services are accessible to Koorie children and families
- recognising early childhood educators who make a vital contribution to early childhood services and children’s learning outcomes.
How to nominate
Anyone can nominate someone for a VEYA, and you can even nominate yourself!
Eligible organisations include early childhood services, local government services, community organisations, health services, disability services and more.
To nominate, refer to Victorian Early Years Awards.
Writing support available
Putting together a winning nomination can be challenging.
For practical advice on how to prepare a high-quality application, review the ‘Writing tips for a great application’ section of the VEYA webpage or download a copy of the tipsheet.
If you want to know how to make your VEYA application stand out from the crowd, join us for a free interactive webinar on Tuesday 20 May 2025.
Webinar
During the webinar, a professional writer will outline:
- effective ways to answer the nomination criteria succinctly with the most relevant information and examples
- how to articulate and showcase what was done that is outstanding and award-worthy
- how to develop a high-quality and stand-out nomination.
Webinar details
Date: Tuesday 20 May 2025
Time: 4:15 pm to 5:15 pm
Platform: online
Cost: free.
Register via this link. Places are limited.
If you can’t attend the webinar but would like feedback on your application, send a copy of your nomination in a Word document, along with your application ID number to the VEYA team by Monday 9 June 2025 by email: early.years.awards@education.vic.gov.au
Find out more
For more information, refer to Victorian Early Years Awards.
To read about our previous finalists and winners, refer to Victorian Early Years Awards winners.
For further enquiries, contact the VEYA team by email: early.years.awards@education.vic.gov.au
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