Since 2003, Step Ahead Education in High Street, Preston has offered academic support to hundreds of students in Melbourne. We cater for students from Years One to 12 and assist adults with various university subjects, diploma courses and Certificate Four subjects.
Today, with our team of talented educators, we offer face-to-face sessions and online teaching to provide academic support beyond the bounds of the northern suburbs.
Our face-to-face sessions are available on Monday and Thursday after school at the Darebin Bridge, 218 High Street, Preston, and Saturday morning at Reservoir Neighbourhood House, 2C Cuthbert Road, Reservoir.
We pride ourselves on having student-tailored learning instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Our tuition style allows us to gain a comprehensive understanding of each student's learning method and the areas in which they need help. Based on this information, a set of activities is planned for each child each week, so no two students are doing the same programme; no two students have the same learning needs.
In years one to six, we provide student-tailored academic support to address the gaps that have occurred in their learning from previous years.
As students move into the senior years, they play a far greater role in directing the sessions. It becomes more the teacher’s job to monitor the learning and adjust content where necessary.
With the onset of COVID-19, and after months of the office being unattended, we have focused on strengthening our online learning support team. Academic support can now be extended well beyond the bounds of the northern suburbs. But as the state returns to face-to-face learning, our centre will arrange sessions upon request. Some other things have also changed: we now offer 45-minute sessions with a maximum of 3 students in the group (fewer if the needs of the students necessitate it) for which the cost is $45 inc GST. Private hour-long sessions can also be made available for $65 inc GST.
Our sessions are still being conducted by the quality staff we have always prided ourselves on making available to our families. Having confidence in our ability to deliver quality learning support means we don’t have to lock families into restrictive contracts or demand payments upfront. To make learning support accessible to more families, we try to keep our fees down and enable week by week payment. Step Ahead Education will strike you much more as a school-like environment than a business.
While parents have ready access to their child’s teacher, the contact person is still Virginia, who began this operation 17 years ago. Having one point of contact means session times can be changed where necessary, programmes and progress can be discussed as can any other matter relating to the learning needs of the students and teaching styles of the staff.