To help celebrate National Water Week, Victorian water corporations are once again hosting our popular National Water Week poster competition.

This year’s poster competition theme is - Water Heroes: Make Every Drop Count.

Victorian children from early learning through all levels of primary school to Year 8 secondary level are encouraged to design, draw or paint a poster that demonstrates this theme.

• Teachers/Educators – this is a great activity for the classroom in the lead up to National Water Week.
  
  
• Parents – this is a fun and engaging activity to do with your child.

Educator’s guide and activities: Inspire your students to become water heroes

To help introduce this year’s National Water Week theme to children/students, we’ve created an Educator’s Guide. Designed to support learning in both early childhood, primary and secondary classrooms, these resources includes background information, discussion prompts, and activity ideas — all aligned with the 2026 theme, Water Heroes: Make Every Drop Count.

Whether you're kicking off a water unit or supporting students in creating their posters, these resources will make it easy to bring the message of water conservation into your classroom in a fun, engaging and meaningful way.

• Educator guide
• Preschool
• Foundation – Year 2
• Years 3 – 6
• Years 7-8

There are great prizes for children/students and centres/schools.

Poster entries categories

• Early Learning/Kindergarten (BOTH individual entries and collaborative entries accepted)
• Prep/Foundation (individual entries ONLY accepted)
• Years 1 – 2 (individual entries ONLY accepted)
• Years 3 – 4 (individual entries ONLY accepted)
• Years 5 – 6 (individual entries ONLY accepted)
• Years 7 – 8 (individual entries ONLY accepted)

Key dates

• Entries close: Friday, 5pm on 11 of September 2026
• Winners will be announced during National Water Week, 19 - 25 October 2026

Entry conditions

• Poster size must be A4 or A3
• Any medium, from paper to digital, can be used
• Any art material and digital technology can be used, including paint, textas, crayons, coloured pencils, collage materials, original photographs and digital graphics
• Uploaded files are limited to 20MB
• Image files should be in .JPG, .PDF or .PNG formats
• For primary school aged children, group artwork will NOT be accepted (only one child per artwork)
• For early learning/kindergarten both individual entries and collaborative entries will be accepted
• Each child/student/collaborative group can only enter once

Originality Requirement

• All entries must be the original work of the child/student(s)
• Artwork created wholly or partially using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools will not be accepted
• Minor editing (e.g. scanning or cropping) is permitted
• By submitting an entry, participants confirm the work is their own

Judging

Winners of the preschool and primary school categories will be

chosen by:

• how well the poster communicates the National Water Week theme, “Water Heroes: Make every drop count,” and/or relevant water issues
• visual impact - how attractive the poster is from a distance
• effective use of art materials
• creativity and originality of imagery, design or concepts

Eligibility

• Entries must be the original work of the child/student(s)
• AI-generated artwork will not be accepted

Winners of the secondary school category will be chosen by:

• Theme communication - Clear and meaningful connection to the theme “Water Heroes: Make Every Drop Count.”
• Visual impact - Eye-catching, bold, and easy to understand from a distance
• Technical Skill - Effective and purposeful use of art materials
• Innovation - Demonstrates fresh ideas, modern design approaches, or imaginative concepts
• Creativity and originality - Shows a distinctive personal voice and moves beyond predictable or copied ideas
• Accuracy of information - Any facts, statistics, or messages presented are correct, appropriate, and relevant to water issues

First prize winners in each category from all participating Victorian water corporations are automatically entered into the state level of competition.