2022 - Alpha One’s Year in Review
What a year 2022 has been for Alpha One and our community of students, parents and staff! Let’s take a look at everything that happened throughout this momentous year.
New Centres
Alpha One started the year off with a bang by opening not one but two new branches! The new centres at Burwood and Epping both opened in January, just in time for the January Selective Holiday Program. Prior to this, we only had two branches in Bella Vista and North Parramatta. However due to high demand, we opened new centres to create more classes as well as create more convenience for our parents who lived further away.
Later down the year, we also opened a new high school branch at Bella Vista to give our older students a more specialised learning experience that catered specifically to their needs. This centre is in the same building as our primary school Bella Vista branch and is only 4 doors down, making it very convenient for both our staff and for parents who had children attending both centres.
Student Achievements
2022 was another year of amazing results from our students, with over 83.2% of all students who took the Selective Test receiving an offer or were placed on the reserve list. We also had over four hundred subjects in the top 10% - these are numbers that we are extremely proud of, especially with all the hardships our students went through this year. These include the sudden change in Selective Test date as well as COVID-19 lockdowns during their preparation period.
Our OC cohort in 2022 also did very well - we will release the results once we have collated all the numbers.
Changes to NSW Education
Many factors rocked the education sector in 2022, including the equity program as well as results calculation.
The equity program was introduced right before the release of Selective Test results, making this a rather controversial move from the Department of Education. This program was implemented to help disadvantaged students receive a more fair representation in Selective Schools. These included students from a lower socio-educational background, rural students, aboriginal students and students with disabilities. For more information on the Equity program, please visit our blog.
The way results are calculated in the Selective and OC Test were also changed this year, with the removal of scores. Instead, students are sorted into bands of top 10%, next 15%, next 25% and bottom 50% for each subject. Reserve lists have also been sorted into bands that reflect likely wait times for students to receive an offer for schools.
Growth
2022 was a year of great growth for Alpha One. Our community boomed, with over four thousand two hundred individual students attending our centres over the course of the year.
We have also greatly expanded our staff numbers, with lots of new dedicated tutors, office staff and other support staff to help Alpha One provide our students and parents with the best service possible.
We would like to thank all the parents and students who have supported us on this journey and for recommending Alpha One to friends and family. We would never have made it this far without it.
Other Projects
The Alpha One team embarked on many side projects this year, the main one being our little stall at the Granny Smith Festival! This is something we have been super keen to do for a couple years already but was never given the opportunity due to COVID-19.
Our team worked tirelessly for weeks on end to create a fun day where we interacted with the local community while also giving out cute merchandise as well as great prizes such as free classes, textbooks and more. Overall, this was a wonderful day where we met a lot of our local students and parents as well as talked to many potential students!
Earlier in the year, our Bella Vista manager Christopher Chen and North Parramatta manager Vincent Liang also appeared on SBS news to talk about the new Equity Program! Check it out here!
We also introduced many new digital platforms this year for our Chinese speaking parents, including our WeChat groups, Little Red Book as well as the new Chinese website. These platforms, along with our existing English platforms (Facebook page, Facebook groups and website), aim to allow parents and students to access extra resources from anywhere, making it easier for students who need extra support outside of class to improve.
2022 has been Alpha One’s biggest year yet, with so many challenges, changes and growth. For 2023, our goal is to make it even better than the last for all our students, staff and parents. We cannot wait to see what the year has in stall for us and look forward to another year with the Alpha One community.
