Homeschool or Virtual Learning?

Virtual Learning. An extension of Hillcrest Christian College.

Flexible learning, built around your family.

Real school learning for the early years, delivered live to your home. Your child has a core teacher who nurtures their curiosity and love of learning, and because lessons run live a few hours a day and are recorded, you choose the routine that suits your week, keeping the mornings and the life-learning that matter to your family.


Start With a Conversation




A Flexible Balance

Created for flexible learning around your family

For a long time, the early years meant one of two things: send your child off to school from eight to three, or teach yourself at home. The Virtual Learning Community from Hillcrest Christian College was created for a third real school learning, built around your family's priorities.

A whole range of families choose the VLC for exactly that. Families who travel around Australia, families extending a child who is ready for more, sporting families who balance training and competition with school, and families who simply want an alternative for their child's primary years. What they share is a school that fits their life, so learning and family life grow together rather than compete for the same hours.



YOUR WEEK, YOUR ROUTINE

Live lessons a few hours a day, and the rest is yours to shape

Each class runs live for a few hours a day, so your child learns with their teacher and their classmates in real time. Every lesson is also recorded, which means the rest of the day is yours to shape. You choose the routine that suits your family, and the learning holds either way.

Perhaps Wednesday mornings are for the beach, or time with a grandparent, or a project that started on the kitchen floor and took on a life of its own. Perhaps your family travels for a season, or your child trains before the day begins. Your child keeps a full, real education, and your family keeps the rhythm that makes the early years the years you want them to be.

Contact our enrolments team.

MORE THAN THE SUBJECTS

A core teacher who nurtures their curiosity and love of learning

Your child has a core class teacher who gets to know them and carries the day, there to nurture their curiosity and their love of learning rather than move a whole room along at one pace. It is real teaching, live and warm, from a qualified teacher who knows your child by name and sees how they are actually going.

Because every child is different, each one has their own Individual Learning Profile, built by the teacher, your child and you together. It means the school understands your family and meets your child exactly where they are, stretching them where they are ready and supporting them where they need it, and it is reviewed throughout the year so it keeps pace as they grow.

THE JUNIOR YEARS

Learning to read, then reading to learn

In the early years the foundation is reading, and the VLC carries it through a programme called I Love Reading. It uses a simple colour and number system to teach the sounds that build the English language, so a beginning reader is handed a clear tool to decode any word on the page and read at an accelerated rate. It is taught by qualified teachers who do this every day, so it is one less thing you carry and one more thing your child gets done properly.

And it does not stop at decoding. Once your child can read, the work turns to reading to learn: the confidence and the habit that let them pick up any subject in the years that follow. It is the foundation the rest of school is built on, and your child gets it live, at home, with a teacher who can see how they are progressing. See how the early years come together in the Junior Learning Community.


MORE THAN THE SUBJECTS

Specialist programs, and the skills that grow underneath

Alongside the core teacher, specialist live lessons bring in Music, Visual Art, Physical Education and French, so your child gets the full breadth of school, taught by people trained in each. It is the richness of a good school day, delivered into your home

Underneath the subjects sit the six SECRET Skills, woven into the hands-on learning from the very start: managing yourself, participating well, thinking creatively, reflecting on your own learning, asking good questions, and working in a team. Taught alongside the seven College Values, they are the character and capability that outlast any single subject, so your child grows not just in what they know, but in who they are becoming.

PREP TO YEAR 12

A start that carries all the way through

Beginning in the Junior VLC years is the start of one school that carries all the way to Year 12, so your child grows up in the same place, with the same team, and is never handed off or restarted. 

From Year 5 the Middle VLC brings in Design-Centred Learning, where students build real projects, a daily Life Group, and the yearly camp from Year 5.

From Year 9 the Senior VLC opens the pathways, with QCE eligibility and both ATAR and VET routes to Year 12, mapped with the Pathways team. The flexibility stays the whole way, so the balance you build in the early years is one your family keeps as your child grows.


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 Learning Community →

Middle VLC · Year 5 – 8


Middle Learning Community →

Senior VLC · Year 9 – 12


Senior Learning Community →


EDUCATED - EQUIPPED - EMPOWERED - ENERGISED


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Sports & PA


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Gifted & Talented


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Homeschool


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Regional


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Faith & Values

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Defence







How to enrol in the Virtual Learning Community?

Starting is simple; it starts with a conversation

Start a conversation

Tell us a little about your family and your child. We will talk you through how the early years work and whether the VLC is the right fit.

Take a Virtual Parent Tour

See the live lessons, the teaching team and the daily rhythm for yourself, so the decision is grounded in what actually happens.

Apply and start

When it feels right, we guide you through enrolment and the Individual Learning Profile, and your child's teaching team is ready before day one.

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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