Brown Elementary Update
Greetings Brown Families and Caregivers,
Happy New Year!
Today we launched our next PAWS Core Values focus: “Work Hard” during our schoolwide assembly! Students learned that working hard means giving their best effort, trying again when something feels difficult, and persevering through challenges—even when the work isn’t easy.
Throughout the coming weeks, teachers and staff will be reinforcing this value across classrooms, hallways, and learning spaces. Students will see examples of what working hard looks like in academics, behavior, and personal growth. We want our students to understand that mistakes are part of learning and that effort, persistence, and a positive mindset help us grow.
How Families Can Reinforce “Work Hard” at Home
Families play an important role in helping children develop strong work habits. Here are a few simple ways you can support this value at home:
Praise effort, not just results (e.g., “I’m proud of how hard you worked on that”).
Encourage perseverance when homework or tasks feel challenging—remind your child that it’s okay to take breaks and try again.
Talk about challenges your child faces and help them problem-solve instead of giving up.
Model working hard by sharing times when you had to practice, learn, or keep trying to reach a goal.
As we approach upcoming benchmark assessments and ACCESS testing for our multilingual learners, the value of working hard is especially important. We are reminding students that these assessments are opportunities to show their learning, growth, and effort—not something to be afraid of. Doing their best, staying focused, and persevering through challenging questions are all ways students can demonstrate the PAWS value of working hard.
Thank you for partnering with us as we help our students build resilience, confidence, and a strong work ethic. Together, we can support our Brown Bears in doing their best and never giving up!
Dr. Even
Welcome Ms. McCall
Please join me in welcoming Ms. Olivia McCall to our front office staff. Ms. McCall is replacing Ms. Cushing, who had decided to move on to new adventures after over 10 years on the Brown School staff. While it is hard to see Ms. Cushing go, we are so grateful to her for leaving such strong systems to set Ms. McCall up for success. Ms. McCall comes with prior experience in the front office at Wilson Middle School, as well as teaching experience at the preschool level. Please take a moment to introduce yourselves to Ms. McCall the next time you are in the office. Please feel free to also reach out to her via email (omccall@natickps.org).
If your child has illness symptoms:
Please keep your child home and refer to the Reasons To Keep Your Child Home From School guidelines.
Reminder to parents:
Students will be going outside if we are not experiencing severe weather. Please pack appropriately for outdoor play, including boots, coats, snowpants, waterproof gloves/mittens and hats, as well as a change of clothes to be kept in their backpacks in case they get wet while playing.
Hydration:
Please send your child with a water bottle each day. It is important to hydrate even in the colder months!
Also: If anyone has any extra hand-me-down pants that they could contribute to the clinic for “emergency” situations, the nurses would greatly appreciate it!
