Remote learning no problem for Olly

Working 30 hours a week while studying isn’t a common approach for final-year high schoolers, but this didn’t stop Olly being one of the top ag achievers in the state last year.

Working 30 hours a week, living in shared accommodation, and cooking and cleaning for yourself while studying online for your VCE isn’t the common approach for most high schoolers.

But for Olly Fowles, last year it was his reality, and the experience helped him become one of the top agriculture and horticulture VCE students in Victoria last year.

Attending Virtual School Victoria, an online remote learning school based out of Melbourne,

Olly spent the past 18 months balancing study while working on his uncle’s vineyard at Fowles Wine at Upton Hill, just outside of Avenel in central Victoria.

Olly Fowles had the equal third highest study score in the state for the VCE Agricultural and Horticultural Studies exam last year.

“I was working pretty much all day, and then doing a bit of school in the afternoons and evenings,” he said.

“I would make sure that I would plan ahead, setting out my schedule, and talking to my boss about what hours I would need off to do classes.”

With a study score of 43 on his VCE Agricultural and Horticultural Studies exam, Olly was the only student of the top 16 to have attended a remote learning school, with the decision to go remote paying off.

“I was very happy. I thought it was a pretty good score, but I didn’t really know how it compared to anyone else until my mum sent me the honour roll,” Olly said.

“To do school online you have to be very self-driven and not get easily distracted, although for me, I would have been more distracted in the classroom.”

Following his VCE completion, Olly is now taking some time to travel around Australia in his self-converted van, before starting the journey on a possible career in veterinary bioscience later in the year.

“I’m really interested in animal welfare, animal health and wellbeing, particularly in regards to yields of livestock,” he said.

“There’s so much more that everyone should be doing to improve the health and wellbeing of the animals to get a better yield and better quality meat.”