Christian Distance Education

Virtual Learning. An extension of Hillcrest Christian College.

A genuinely Christian school, and a real academic future.

Your family's faith shapes how you raise your children. Virtual Learning is Hillcrest Christian College's own online school, so a Christian worldview runs through the learning, the pastoral care and the community, from Prep to Year 12, with a real Queensland Certificate of Education and ATAR at the end of it.


Start with a conversation




Faith & Future Together

A school that shares your foundation

Your family's faith shapes how you raise your children. It shapes the conversations at the dinner table, the community you belong to, and the values you want reflected in their education. Finding a school that shares that foundation matters, and finding one that also delivers genuine academic outcomes matters just as much.

Virtual Learning is not a secular online school with a chapel added on. It is the distance education of Hillcrest Christian College, a college that has educated Queensland families for more than 40 years under the motto Excellence in Christ. The faith your family lives at home is the faith your child learns inside, and the pathway it leads to is real.


WHAT MAKES IT GENUINELY CHRISTIAN

A worldview woven in, not bolted on

A Christian worldview is embedded in the units of work and in the VLC's Life Groups, grounding how learning, relationships and character are approached every day. It is not a separate subject sitting beside a secular curriculum. Every subject is taught by a qualified Christian teacher. Not a teacher who simply respects the values, but one who holds the faith themselves, so your child does not step out of their faith to do their schooling and back into it afterwards. The two are one thing.

The seven College Values give it shape day to day: Integrity, Service, Respect, Courage, Humility, Diligence and Discernment, woven into the fabric of the learning at every year level. 

They sit within the College Shield, which carries the College's mission and the words of Psalm 28:7, "The Lord is my strength and my shield." For a family for whom faith is the foundation of every decision, this is a school built on the same ground you are.

One Christian distance education experience, Prep to Year 12

The worldview does not begin in the senior years. It runs through the whole of school. In the Junior VLC, Prep to Year 4, a core class teacher leads Guided Learning and the I Love Reading programme, so a young child learns to read and to reason within a Christian frame from the very start. From Year 5 the Middle VLC brings in Design-Centred Learning, where students explore the impact they can have on the world around them, locally and globally, as an expression of serving others right through to the Senior VLC.

Threaded through every year are the six SECRET Skills and the seven College Values, so your child grows not only in what they know but in the character the values describe. It is one school, one foundation, from a child's first year to their last, which is what lets a faith family settle in for the long journey rather than the next stage only.

A COMMUNITY OF FAITH, FROM HOME

Belonging, and a teacher who shares your values

One worry many faith families carry about learning from home is losing the church-like community a school can give. The VLC is built around it. From the middle years, every child belongs to a Life Group, the VLC's pastoral home, where a small group meets regularly for spiritual formation, pastoral support and peer connection. The Life Group teacher knows your child and shares your family's values, and in the senior years, when your child has several specialist subject teachers, that teacher is the one who keeps the whole child, and their walk of faith, in view.

Around it runs the shared rhythm of the school. The whole community comes together online for Gathering, the VLC's chapel, a shared time of worship and reflection that anchors the week in faith. For families near the Reedy Creek campus on the Gold Coast, optional enrichment and social days let the friendships made online meet in person. Your child is not learning their faith alone at a screen. They belong to a Christian school community that reaches them wherever in Queensland you are.

EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

More than results. A life shaped in Christ.

Hillcrest's mission is to educate, equip, empower and energise each child, to prepare them not only for their professional life but for their personal and spiritual life too. In the VLC that plays out across five domains the school builds around every student: the intellectual, the spiritual, the emotional, their wellbeing, and their place in a changing world. Your child's report is not the whole measure of them, and the VLC is built the same way you are raising them, with the whole person in view.

That is why the pastoral care sits so close to the learning. Each child has their own Individual Learning Profile, so the school knows your child as an individual, and the College wellbeing team and Learning Support are there when they are needed. The academic outcomes are real, and they sit inside a Christian formation that lasts well beyond the final exam.



Our Virtual Learning Communities

The VLC operates under three distinct learning areas


Prep to Year 12

One school, and what actually happens inside it

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.

Junior VLC · Prep – Year 4


Junior Virtual Learning →

Middle VLC · Year 5 – 8


Middle Virtual Learning →

Senior VLC · Year 9 – 12


Senior Virtual Learning →


EDUCATED - EQUIPPED - EMPOWERED - ENERGISED


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Sports & PA


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Gifted Learners


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Homeschool


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Regional


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Christian

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Defence







How to enrol in the Virtual Learning Community?

A gentle first step, starts with a confidential conversation

A confidential conversation

Tell us a little about your child and what has been hard. A fifteen-minute conversation is all it takes to see whether the VLC could help. If it is not the right fit, we will say so.

Take a Virtual Parent Tour

See the live lessons and the small, steady community, and ask the questions that matter for your child.

Start at your child's pace

When you are ready, we build an Individual Learning Plan and, where it helps, a lighter starting load that grows as your child settles.

Enrolment Enquiry
Enrolment Application

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

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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Hillcrest Christian College - Virtual Learning Community

Ph: +61 07 5593 4226

21 Bridgman Drive, Reedy Creek, QLD 4227 Australia

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