Mather Elementary School

The Brookline Literacy Partnership has a new partner school!

The Mather Elementary School, located in Dorchester, prides themselves on their slogan: “The First and Finest”. The school was the first free public elementary school in the country, in the year 1639.

Today, the Mather serves almost 600 students in grades K-5. Of these students, over 80% are low income. Many are recent immigrants, primarily from Cape Verde and Vietnam. Almost 50% of the students’ first language is not English, making it extremely hard to learn in school- especially reading.

This year, The Brookline Literacy Partnership hopes to make a difference in the lives of the students at this school by providing literacy support. The tutoring program sends twelve students to the Mather School every Tuesday to help individual students that are struggling.

The Vacation Books Project aims to present every student in the fourth and fifth grades with a book to bring home over winter vacation and keep. The BLP is also working with the Mather School Library to ensure they have the resources necessary to provide the kids with sufficient literacy materials.