If you’ve ever stepped inside Almond Acres Charter Academy (AACA), you sense that our school feels more like a home than just a school building. Everyone knows your name, from teaching staff to students to parents. We spend a lot of time together—our students are with us when learning the alphabet, multiplication tables and all the way through the formative years of middle school. This sense of family is a powerful benefit of attending our K-8 school.
Safe and Nurturing Environment
By attending a K-8, families have fewer transitions and students get to remain in a safe, developmentally appropriate environment that nurtures students right where they are, suggests a Harvard Education Magazine study. The familiarity of the buildings, scheduling, and the staff gives students confidence and knowledge as they grow. Also—who doesn’t love fewer drop offs when you have multiple kids in school?
The safe community feel of a K-8 building contributes to fewer discipline and behavior problems than a traditional middle school. And fewer behavior issues means less time pulled away from academics. Higher grades and greater involvement in extracurriculars like sports and performing arts, are a pretty great benefit, too.
Leadership, Agency & Confidence
Have you noticed that leadership is a central tenet of our philosophy?
Throughout the up to 9 years at Almond Acres, students are provided many opportunities to practice and learn character traits through the Leader in Me curriculum. The consistent messaging of our Habits of Mind in the classroom and during Shared Start, means that our AACA students get the opportunity to go more and more in depth each year. Students also practice these traits in the community through service learning projects, a cornerstone of our curriculum.
Our middle school students look forward to the chance to be “top dogs” at Almond Acres. 7th and 8th graders serve as role models for the younger students and serve as the Student Body Leadership Team. They are proud to hold this responsibility and aim to set a good example for younger students. Additionally, our Buddy Program gives elementary students an opportunity to see that middle school can be pretty awesome.
Almond Acres also offers athletics for our entire K-8 student body. From intramurals to competitive teams, there is something for everyone. We cheer each other on from the start—it’s common to see our elementary students cheering on our middle school athletes. The athletic and team skills our students learn early on support greater participation in middle school.
Students at a K-8 school also experience higher levels of self-esteem. At Almond Acres, we help students get to know all the ways they are smart. We focus on their strengths as we affirm, stretch and celebrate each individual. Students feel comfortable being challenged, learning new things, and taking risks. Our K-8th graders learn how to fail and start again for all nine years in a supportive atmosphere with trusted adults ready to help and guide.
Culture of Community
When you enroll at Almond Acres, you get more than an education, you get a school home that feels like family. Our K-8 culture is built on positive teacher-student-family relationships with emphasis on service to our community.
Our students benefit from a sense of security and support in knowing our teachers are there beyond the time shared in classrooms. We often see students make special connections with an elementary teacher and come back to stop by the classroom as a seventh grader; just to check in.
Almond Acres families are considered our greatest assets. Families participate in activities, fundraisers and decision making. They attend field trips, help out in the classrooms and support our teachers. We are thankful for parent involvement from kindergarten to 8th grade, which frees up time so Almond Acres staff can do what they do best: teach the heart, mind, body, and soul of every child. And parents love to see first-hand what happens at school, strengthening the school-home connection.
At Almond Acres, we are proud to offer our child-centered, holistic education and the benefit of consistency, support, mentorship and a school family for nine straight years. Rely on us to help create a secure foundation for your child. We are enrolling now for Fall 2022!
About AACA
Almond Acres Charter Academy is a public, tuition-free K-8 school that employs credentialed teachers and administers state-mandated testing to provide families in northern SLO County an additional choice in public education. Located in Paso Robles in a newly built, state-of-the-art facility, AACA is open to all students from all communities. AACA’s mission is to help students succeed academically and socially by educating the whole child: heart, mind, body and soul. We grow great kids!
