Virtual Learning is Hillcrest Christian College, taught live to your home. Queensland's Live Online School with daily live lessons, Prep to Year 12.
Some have home educated for years and have reached a subject they cannot carry alone. Some are looking at Prep and cannot picture handing a five-year-old to a bell and those school hours.
There is, and it is neither homeschooling nor traditional distance education. The Virtual Learning Community is an accredited Queensland school that teaches children live while they learn at home. Your family keeps the rhythm you have built. The curriculum, the teaching, the assessment and the reporting move across to Hillcrest Christian College.
The Hillcrest Virtual Learning Community is the distance education extension of Hillcrest Christian College, a College that has educated Queensland families for more than 40 years.
A dedicated core class teacher, specialist live lessons in Music, Visual Art, Physical Education and French, and the I Love Reading program building early literacy from the ground up.
Visit our dedicated page for the Junior years to see how the VLC can offer families considering or looking to migrate from home school.
Qualified specialist teachers; Middle Learning Community, where teachers are trained to support students through the adolescent years.
The Senior Learning Community offers specialist teachers for senior subjects, a Life Group teacher and pathways planning.
Every class runs live with a qualified teacher and also includes classmates. Not a video library, not a workbook that arrives in the post. A few hours a day on a real timetable, with a teacher who can see and knows your child and actively supports their learning.
Every lesson is also recorded in Teams. When training is on, when the family is travelling, when an appointment lands mid-morning, your child watches it back and stays with the class. The live lesson is the default and the recording is the safety net, so the learning happens either way.
Every class runs live with a qualified teacher and also includes classmates. Not a video library, not a workbook that arrives in the post. A few hours a day on a real timetable, with a teacher who can see and knows your child and actively supports their learning.
Every lesson is also recorded in Teams. When training is on, when the family is travelling, when an appointment lands mid-morning, your child watches it back and stays with the class. The live lesson is the default and the recording is the safety net, so the learning happens either way.
Every class runs live with a qualified teacher and also includes classmates. Not a video library, not a workbook that arrives in the post. A few hours a day on a real timetable, with a teacher who can see and knows your child and actively supports their learning.
Every lesson is also recorded in Teams. When training is on, when the family is travelling, when an appointment lands mid-morning, your child watches it back and stays with the class. The live lesson is the default and the recording is the safety net, so the learning happens either way.
One of the quiet concerns a home-learning family carries is connection. Your child may already have a full social life through sport, church and community, yet the particular kind of belonging that comes from learning alongside other children on a similar journey is genuinely hard to build at home.
The VLC is designed the other way around. Lessons are live and interactive, taught in intentionally small classes, so your child is learning with classmates in real time instead of working through a folder alone.
The belonging is built in, not bolted on. Life Groups sit alongside the online Gathering and Christian Living as the pastoral rhythm of the school, and from Year 5 the yearly camp adds a shared experience the year group remembers for years. More on Christian Virtual Learning.
Because the enrolment holds, your child moves through the whole of school in one place, and each stage hands on to the next. Here is what the learning actually looks like, in plain terms.
EDUCATED - EQUIPPED - EMPOWERED - ENERGISED
Tell us where your family is and where your child is up to. We will talk you through whether VLC is the right fit.
See what learning looks like in the VLC and ask the questions that matter for your child and family circumstances.
When you are ready, we will guide you through enrolment, including mid-year entry.
Please find additional information and frequently asked questions.
Yes, Hillcrest Christian College is an evolution of more traditional Distance education.
Distance education programs have traditionally catered to students with limited access to mainstream schooling, such as students living in regional or remote locations. Our VLC has adapted the benefits of distance education to offer all families a world-class, independent school education that can be completed at home.
Unlike homeschooling, where parents need to source, plan and assess student lessons, your family will have access to dedicated and trained staff to engage them in daily online classes, working through an innovative and future-focused curriculum.
The VLC mirrors our on-campus communities with stages of age-appropriate learning.
Junior VLC (Prep – Year 4): Focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy through our I Love Reading program, integrated projects, and core Australian Curriculum subjects. Students also participate in Life Groups, Christian Living, online Gathering (Chapel), and Assemblies.
Middle VLC (Years 5 – 8): Supports students through Design-Centred Learning (DCL) projects, SECRET Skills development, and micro-credentialing, integrating core subjects and elective learning. Yearly camps foster personal growth.
Senior VLC (Years 9 – 12): Prepares students for post-school pathways with QCE, ATAR and non-ATAR options, plus access to VET courses. Core subjects and electives align with career and tertiary goals, complemented by leadership development, camps, and faith-based engagement.
Junior VLC (Prep – Year 4): Focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy through our I Love Reading program, integrated projects, and core Australian Curriculum subjects. Students also participate in Life Groups, Christian Living, online Gathering (Chapel), and Assemblies.
Middle VLC (Years 5 – 8): Supports students through Design-Centred Learning (DCL) projects, SECRET Skills development, and micro-credentialing, integrating core subjects and elective learning. Yearly camps foster personal growth.
Senior VLC (Years 9 – 12): Prepares students for post-school pathways with QCE, ATAR and non-ATAR options, plus access to VET courses. Core subjects and electives align with career and tertiary goals, complemented by leadership development, camps, and faith-based engagement.
Students in Years 11-12: choose five subjects from the following: English OR Essential English (compulsory); General Mathematics, Essential Mathematics OR Mathematical Methods (compulsory); Modern History; Legal Studies; Biology; Psychology; and Business. VET and other courses are also available in ATAR and non-ATAR pathways. As the VLC continues to grow, further options will become available. Please contact our enrolments team if you have any questions.
Students in the VLC also build a portfolio of SECRET Skills (Self-Manager, Effective Participator, Creative Thinker, Reflective Learner, Enquirer, Team Worker) as a key component of Hillcrest’s mission to develop the whole child. As a Christian College, units are taught from a biblical world view.
Students participate in live, daily online sessions with their teacher between 1-2 hours in total, depending on the year level. If they can’t attend the online sessions, students will be expected to watch these back in their own time throughout the week.
They will also have individual learning activities to complete each week in their own time. Students and families can structure the learning week to suit their circumstances. In general, students can expect their weekly workload to be a lot faster compared to a mainstream schooling setting.
NAPLAN testing is compulsory for all Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students across Australia, whether in a mainstream or Distance Education setting. However, parents may withdraw their child because of philosophical or religious reasons.
NAPLAN testing takes place in Term 1 each year. More information will be sent to parents about the testing (and process for withdrawals, if applicable) at the beginning of each school year. If you cannot arrange for your child to attend the Hillcrest Christian College Home Campus (Reedy Creek), arrangements can be made with your local school to complete the testing.
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