Wherever you are in Queensland, the closest school is not always the right one.
Virtual Learning is a full, accredited Distance Education Queensland school delivered live to your child at home, so where you live no longer sets the ceiling on what your child can learn.
The decision usually lands hardest in the years before Year 7. The primary years have worked well enough close to home, and then the next stage arrives. Specialist subjects. Senior pathways on the horizon. A child who is ready for more than the local option can offer, or who needs a particular kind of support that is not available nearby.
You start looking further afield, and every option asks you to give something up: your child's home, your family's rhythm, or the standard of education you know they are capable of. None of that is really about distance measured in kilometres. It is about fit, and whether the right school has to sit beyond your family's reach. Virtual Learning exists so that it is not.
A teacher for every subject, not an app or handouts to fill out.
Virtual Learning is not a set of worksheets or a curriculum pack posted to your door. It is Hillcrest Christian College, delivered live. VLC is an accepted Queensland school that follows the QCAA syllabi, with students working towards a Queensland Certificate of Education, operated by a College with more than 40 years of educating Queensland families. Your child is enrolled as a student at Hillcrest Christian College, and that holds no matter where in Queensland your family lives.
What that looks like day-to-day is real school. Your child joins structured, teacher-led lessons throughout the day and interacts with their teachers in real time. Assignments are set, submitted, marked, and returned with feedback.
Qualified teachers carry the academic load, not the parent at the kitchen table. The College coordinates and delivers the curriculum, the assessment and the reporting, so the responsibility for your child's education sits where it should. The teaching quality and the accreditation are the same as any campus. The only difference is location.
The people around your child are qualified, registered teachers trained specifically in virtual education. In the Junior and Middle years, core teachers deliver the breadth of the curriculum, with specialist teachers adding their subjects alongside them. In the Senior years, specialist subject teachers take the lead as the work deepens.
Around the teaching sits a Life Group, a consistent pastoral community where your child belongs and is known. Life Groups are pastoral, not academic: academic progress is owned by the subject teachers who teach and mark the work.
The way each child is met as an individual is the Individual Learning Profile. The ILP brings the teacher, the student and you together to look honestly at your child's strengths, aspirations, challenges, and where they are ready to stretch, and it is reviewed throughout the year so the plan keeps pace with the child. Lessons are taught live and recorded, which means your family chooses in the moment: join the class live, or catch up later when the day calls for it.
That flexibility belongs to you. What does not change is the standard of the teaching your child receives.
Learning from home is not only about reach. It is about flexibility. Because every lesson is live and also recorded, your family decides how the week actually runs: join the class live, or catch up later around a muster, a harvest, a long drive into town, or a hand needed on the property. For many regional and farm families this is where the real value sits. Their child keeps a full, accredited education and stays genuinely part of the life of the place they live.
It is also why families come to the VLC for reasons beyond distance. The same flexibility suits families who have chosen home learning, or sport and performing arts families, whose children need school to move with a training or performance calendar. For a regional child it means school and life on the land are no longer competing for the same hours. The classroom knowledge and the life learning grow alongside each other.
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 the live lessons and how VLC learning works, and ask the questions that matter for your child.
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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