A letter to Toronto parents.

Dear Toronto parents,

We're an academically minded family. We care more than anything about top 1% academics. So when I tell you we're choosing Alpha School for all three of our children, I want you to understand what that means coming from us.

Caradoc, our oldest

Our son Caradoc turns 12 in August. He is a "top of the top of the class" student — the type of 99th percentile kid who would naturally fit in at a school like UTS. In his own words:

I am a bilingual stage gracing, poetry reading, French Horn playing, AI ethics pondering, advanced math calculating, science researching, French literature reading pre-teen who wants to explore big ideas in a place where that matters.

He got a perfect 150 on the Waterloo Grade 8 Gauss in 2025 — one of 33 students across the country to do so. He made regionals in the Science Fair. He acts in school plays, is dabbling with guitar, and is a nerdy social butterfly. We want him to go to a school like Oxford or Cambridge. And we think Alpha is a much better path than anything else available — more academically rigorous, but also lets intellectual curiosity flourish and shine.

It means a lot to us that the Director of Admissions at Stanford was so impressed with every Alpha High School applicant this year that she did a shadow day at Alpha Palo Alto and then signed up her two 7-year-old twins.

Cedric, our middle child

But on the non-academic side, here's a story from an Alpha parent that stopped us in our tracks:

That's not from us. But Cedric, our 9-year-old, is temperamentally shy yet very bright and curious. We want a school where stuff like the above happens: kids are guided and mentored to grow and build confidence by taking on new challenges. They go to school in an environment where parents, students, and staff are 100% supportive of achievement, trying new things, and taking on new challenges. We think Alpha is that type of school.

Cormac, our youngest

Our youngest, Cormac, is 5 years old. He's been kicking soccer balls since he was a year old. I have no idea whether he'll end up being a super athlete or just very boisterous. I do know that if he wants to become an athlete, having a path where he can maintain the "top 1% academics" standard our family has is a non-negotiable.

If it turns out that he can do that in 2–3 hours a day and open his daily and weekly schedule for more athletics, and he loves it, then we believe in more soccer for our youngest. And we believe Alpha makes that most possible long term.

Why we believe

So we have three multi-faceted children, but on all dimensions, after talking to half a dozen friends whose kids are in Alpha right now in Texas, Florida, and California and hearing their stories, our family is firmly convinced this is the right path.

My wife is a school teacher. She is generally against technology in the classroom and feels that the intrusion of computers and tech in education has been a detriment to student growth and achievement. She also believes in data, and has seen how there are paths to better learning outcomes.

So when I say that our family is firmly convinced, what I am saying is that I drank the Kool-Aid early, and then my wife took apart all the positives and negatives in great detail, and came out on the side of “this is a good thing.”

— Peter