Free Kinder Shapes Young Lives: Victoria launches major new campaign celebrating the power of early childhood education

Victoria has unveiled Free Kinder Shapes Young Lives, a bold new campaign marking the next milestone of the state’s Best Start, Best Life reforms. It promotes the benefits of kinder for families, reinforcing the transformative role early childhood education plays in shaping children’s futures.

Victoria has unveiled Free Kinder Shapes Young Lives, a bold new campaign marking the next milestone of the state’s Best Start, Best Life reforms. It promotes the benefits of kinder for families, reinforcing the transformative role early childhood education plays in shaping children’s futures.

Led by a vibrant creative identity built around familiar kindergarten shapes, the campaign highlights both the immediate and lifelong benefits of kindergarten for children and families, while also recognising the vital role of early childhood teachers and educators.

The campaign centres on familiar shapes, reimagined to convey a deeper meaning, how early childhood education shapes the lives of children. Each shape is aligned with the different benefits of quality early childhood education.  

A campaign shaped by the sector

The Free Kinder Shapes Young Lives campaign has been developed with input from the sector. Early childhood teachers, educators, and families provided feedback, which helped to refine the campaign.  

The campaign aims to reflect authentic learning environments, real practice and the everyday impact early childhood professionals have on children’s learning and development.

Filmed at a Victorian kindergarten, the campaign features genuine learning experiences such as drawing, light box activities, building a stick cubby, clay play and collaborative activities, designed with subject matter experts to ensure the content resonates with both families and the workforce.

The campaign will run across video, digital, social, print and outdoor advertising.

The hero campaign video captures the joy, curiosity and confidence children build through kindergarten, while showing how everyday play experiences help shape lifelong skills.

A dedicated workforce video has also been developed to celebrate the contribution early childhood professionals make every day. It highlights the impact educators and teachers have on children, families and communities, while encouraging prospective entrants to consider a career in the sector.

Why this campaign matters

The campaign supports two key priorities: increasing participation in kindergarten and promoting the importance of the early childhood workforce.

Free Kinder is helping make kindergarten more affordable and accessible for Victorian families, while encouraging participation in quality learning programs that support:

• confidence and wellbeing.
• communication and language development.
• friendships and social capability.
• early literacy and numeracy foundations.
• smoother transitions to school.

Tailored activity for multicultural and Koorie communities will include in‑language and longer‑form video content.

Following launch, communication toolkits will also be distributed to services and providers to support local promotion, family engagement and workforce recruitment.

Learn more

Families, educators and services can learn more about Free Kinder and Victoria’s Best Start, Best Life reforms by visiting the Victorian Government education website.