Almaden Country School’s mission is to discover the gifts in every child. To this end, our teachers create an individualized Personal Learning Plan for every student, updated twice annually, that tracks each child’s learning style, strengths and growth areas.

Key components of the Personal Learning Plan (PLP) include:

• Parent input about their child’s assets, learning style, and specific needs
• Teacher’s observations of the student’s strengths, interests, learning style and areas for improvement
• Students’ comments about their learning styles and goals for the year
• Teacher updates about progress toward goals, recommendations for the students and parents, and guidance for next year’s teacher.

PLP goals can be academic, social, or behavioral, and include input from parents, teachers and the children themselves. The PLP goals link to our Expected School-Wide Learning Results to ensure that we track every child’s progress in meeting the school’s rigorous exit outcomes.

In addition to the PLP information, students still receive regular progress reports and report cards, which reflect growth relative to grade-level standards. The Personal Learning Plan, on the other hand, reflects growth toward individual achievement expectations. The Personal Learning Plan helps guide instruction for the teacher, becomes a basis for regular parent-teacher communication, and provides a highly individualized, insightful basis for measuring each child’s progress over time.

The Personal Learning Plan is a rich resource of information for teachers, parents and students as we work together to maximize each child’s potential across their years at ACS.