Ballarat Grammar: Mount Rowan farm students top state in VCE agriculture results

Years of hands-on learning from teachers with real farming experience helped these kids smash their VCE ag exam out of the park. See the honour roll.

Camille Smith

2 min read

January 5, 2024 - 3:37PM

The Weekly Times

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The future of farming is in good hands, if 18-year-old Ella Flamsteed is anything to go by.

The Ballarat Grammar graduate achieved the top score in the state on her VCE Agricultural and Horticultural Studies exam, with a study score of 45 matched by just one other student – fellow Ballarat Grammar alumni Miriam Drinnan.

“I think agriculture came naturally because I enjoyed the subject and wanted to do the study,” said Ella, who grew up at Ararat and hopes to study veterinary science. “I had quite a good time doing that exam … it was the only one I did enjoy.”

Ballarat Grammar's Ella Flamsteed achieved a VCE study score of 45 in Agricultural and Horticultural Studies, the top result in the state for the subject. Picture: Supplied

Ella and Miriam were two of 34 Ballarat Grammar students who sat the exam, with 10 achieving scores of 40-plus.

Teacher Jo Ham said the result was “amazing”, especially as there was no textbook for the VCE course and students had to master concepts from animal production and genetics to environmental science and economics.

“Ella was one who didn’t come off a farm. It shows how hard she worked,” Ms Ham said.

Ms Ham said the school’s Mount Rowan farm campus gave students from year 4 through year 12 exposure to ag curriculum.

“The whole teaching staff are all very passionate about what we do,” she said.

She is also an advocate for reclassifying the ag and hort VCE subject as a science, rather than a design and technology discipline, as it is now in Victoria.

“I see it as very science based,” she said. “In NSW they have it under both.

“It is not just driving tractors. Agriculture is at the heart of so many communities. And we need more people to fall in love with the land so it continues to be looked after.”

Deciding between university offers from her family’s property in Tasmania, Ella said she hoped to one day work in a regional vet practice “so I’m part of a community”.