• About Broad Street Elementary School

    Broad Street Elementary School is one of the smaller elementary schools in Nashua, serving about 250 neighborhood students in grades kindergarten through grade 5.  Our school also houses about 50 district-wide preschool students enrolled in a federal-funded Title I program. Also, Broad Street Elementary is home to one of the city’s Project Achievement programs. Project Achievement serves district-wide elementary students identified as having significant social, emotional, and behavior concerns. All Broad Street School students are referred to as Bulldogs, which is the school mascot.

    The focus at Broad Street School is not on what the students should not or cannot do, but what they can and are expected to do. This small shift in language and attitude has a large impact on the climate and culture of the school.  Our amazing teachers:

    • Normalize struggle. Struggle is part of the learning process and teachers help students react positively when they feel challenged.
    • Portray challenges as fun and exciting, and easy tasks as boring.
    • Explain how hard tasks are good for our brains. They explain that our brains are like our muscles, and they need exercise to become strong.
    • Demonstrate mistakes and celebrate corrections. Mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities.
    • Embrace the word “yet”. If a student says, “I’m not good at fractions,” a teacher will likely respond, “You aren’t good at fractions yet.”

    For a small school, Broad Street School has big expectations for its students and staff.  We expect students to be safe, responsible, and respectful throughout the school day, teaching explicitly what that means in each area of the school. The expectations seem simple, but they are powerful, and we reference them repeatedly throughout the day. For example, in the cafeteria, we expect students to be safe and wash their hands before eating, and then we expect them to clean their lunch tables, as responsible and respectful classmates.  We also expect them to be respectful by using indoor, restaurant voices while they eat. There are similar but unique expectations for other areas of the school like bathrooms, classrooms, the hallways, and even the school busses.


    With consistent expectations, students know what is expected of them throughout the school day. This allows them to feel more confident, engaged, and connected to the school community. It also makes it easier for teachers to recognize positive behaviors, and to correct problem behaviors to keep small problems small.  In addition, ensuring expectations and related routines are practiced school-wide reduces pressure on individual teachers to design their own behavior management systems. The consistency helps everyone know what to expect in every area of school.

    We are very proud of our Bulldogs!

    John Forrest, Principal

     

     

    Each week Broad Street students are recognized for being safe, responsible, and respectful. Bulldog Brag