These students are ditching screens for boots and garden tools to dig up VCE success
Students at Bacchus Marsh Grammar are not only eager to dig into their studies, but also the soil.
About a 25-minute drive from the main campus in Maddingley, 50 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, the pupils ditch their screens to don boots and grab trowels.
Kayura Thimmaraju, 15, Hayden Beckwith, 15, Herry Patel, 15, Abbey Cabban, 16, and Paras Singh, 15.Credit: Wayne Taylor
They are key to maintaining and managing this 200-acre property at Staughton Vale, about 20 kilometres south of the campus, which has apricot and lemon orchards, a market garden and indoor aquaculture.
The farm is one of the features of the independent school that makes it stand out among its rivals, with some families willing to commute up to an hour to get there.
School captains Kiesha Tau and Samuel Lillie, both 17, have fond memories of gardening at the property when they were younger, and recently ran the cross-country on the bucolic grounds.
Students will visit the farm at least once a term throughout junior and middle school, with senior students visiting once a semester.
“We’d go there to garden … just the way it’s transitioned from when I was younger, I’d love to be a kid again,” she said.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar’s impressive academic results are another reason parents choose the school.
That is why it has been named The Age’s 2025 Schools that Excel winner for rural/regional schools for its improved VCE results over the past decade.
The annual series celebrates schools that achieve outstanding advancement in their VCE results.
Students at Bacchus Marsh Grammar’s Staughton Vale farm: Paras Singh, Herry Patel, Kayura Thimmaraju, Abbey Cabban and Hayden Beckwith.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Bacchus Marsh Grammar’s median study score has risen from its previous baseline of 31 to 32 over the past two years, and the percentage of students achieving scores above 40 has also increased, from 9.3 per cent in 2015 to a 10-year high of 13.9 per cent in 2024.
These improvements have been recorded during a surge in the number of students doing VCE at the school, with twice as many enrolled in Year 12 subjects than a decade ago.
Former principal and current chief executive Andrew Neal said the school had been steadily working to improve students’ academic results for years.
“This is not a one-year wonder, we’ve been working on this for nearly 20 years, and so much of our success in senior years is what is done in the younger years,” he said.
That included building up students’ belief in themselves and helping them to realise their potential.
“When I first arrived here, [there] were some very bright children who didn’t realise how bright they were, so it’s about building those expectations,” he said.
The school has also faced controversies, including when a former student used AI to digitally manipulate images of female students in 2024.
“It was a difficult time,” said Neal, who was the principal during the incident.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar principal Debra Ogston (L) and CEO Andrew Neal, with students Emma Stewart, Roshyna Attwal, Samuel Lillie, Keisha Tau, Lucas Harper, Awande Masuku and Madelyn Hunter.Credit: Wayne Taylor
But he said the girls and boys at the school were incredibly resilient and came together.
“There’s a degree of anger in the community about the whole thing, and it slowly dissipated when there was a clear understanding that it wasn’t one of our fellow students that was the perpetrator,” Neal said.
He said the school has largely moved on from the incident, but still believes more protections should be in place around the use of technology.
“We will campaign long and hard [for more protections], but that’s an issue that governments need to tackle with technology companies,” he said.
Current principal Debra Ogston noted that a key factor in the students’ achievements was their growing interest in STEM subjects, a trend supported by parents who see its importance for future careers.
Many of their students aim to study medicine, law or business at university, and the school wants to help accommodate growing interest in the subjects that lead to those courses.
Part of that is the construction of a new $20 million science and technology building, due to be completed next year.
Ogston said the school had a strong group of academic “high-flyers” but aimed to increase the proportion of students who achieved at that level.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar.
“We’re working with those students to really continue to push them along and support them … we do that socially and emotionally as well,” she said.
Both school captains agree, stating they are well-connected with their teachers, who are eager to help them achieve their goals.
Kiesha Tau wants to study law in the US or at ANU, while Samuel Lillie aspires to be an aerospace engineer.
Both credited the school with supporting their goals through a myriad of opportunities like internships, extracurricular activities and additional learning support.
Lillie said the school provided extra classes and study programs, which he used for chemistry to get ahead of exams, as well as trackers to ensure he was hitting his goals.
“Every single one of my teachers runs lunchtime classes for extra help, and if you email on weekends or holidays they respond like instantly, and having that support behind you is really nice,” the teen said.
Keen singer Tau said she loved music and was looking forward to the annual concert.
She said there was something for everyone to get involved with at the school.
“You’re not limited here, you can find what you want to do,” she said.
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