Our Values
PS 29 is a school that welcomes and strives to see and include every child and family in our diverse Brooklyn community. We believe that all of our children bring unique strengths and identities to their classrooms, and we work to affirm and empower every student academically, socially, and emotionally. Academically, we value student choice, agency, and providing rigorous learning opportunities that offer access for all. Through our PS 29 Code for Living, we teach students that respect, responsibility, empathy and integrity are essential to becoming good citizens of our community, city, country and world. Social justice, equity, and anti-racist, anti-bias work are critically important to us; we recognize that we can’t change the world until we change ourselves, and to that end we continue to work toward uncovering implicit bias, dismantling systemic inequities, and examining both the past and the present with an equity lens.
Our Approach
PS 29 students are readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, musicians, artists, and makers. Across the subject areas, our teaching builds from what students know and understand, and incorporates opportunities for enrichment, real-world application, inquiry as well as explicit and coherent instruction that develops from one grade to the next. We value our students’ creativity, encourage flexible thinking, and empower students to make their own choices about what they read, what they write about, and how they solve problems.
Enrichment opportunities abound at PS 29, including chess, STEM, dance, theater, yoga, running team, newspaper club, and many more. Our science teachers use our school’s garden to engage students in learning about where food comes from and other important concepts related to sustainability. Affinity groups in 4th and 5th grade offer students with historically marginalized identities the chance to find community, as well as to plan schoolwide actions that support equity and inclusion. Allyship circles provide a space for all students to learn how they can be allies to their peers.
Our values and approach foster development of the whole child - through a balance of academics, enrichment, self-expression, restorative practices and our commitment to social-emotional development.