The Gow School

We are a school about language. Begun in 1926, Gow was the nation’s first school for dyslexics. Many other specialty schools can trace their roots to the groundbreaking work of our founder, Peter Gow, Jr., and Samuel T. Orton. Today their pioneering spirit continues in our experienced teaching team, who are fiercely dedicated to our research-driven remediation program and to their students’ futures. In small classes that foster personalized instruction, students become stronger readers and more confident writers. In fact, confidence is a natural outgrowth of language improvement (usually apparent shortly after arrival) and our culture of success.

We are about college preparation. That’s right. Your family may not be thinking beyond high school now, but we are. Just as Gow students make gains fast, so they keep gaining until they finish—strongly—at Gow and beyond. We pride ourselves on helping students develop what they need academically, socially, and emotionally—strategies to deal with their learning differences, knowledge across our academic curriculum, and qualities such as focus, work ethic, drive, and self-discipline—to go to and through college and achieve their goals.

Gow is about people. Here everyone is treated as equals with unconditional respect and positive regard. We are a warm and united community eager to welcome the next generation. The Gow School has led the way in educating students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities since 1926. That's when Peter Gow, Jr., founded the school in a visionary effort to rethink the learning process. After 20 years of teaching at Choate Rosemary Hall, Nichols School, and The Park School, he had become concerned that so many intelligent students were encountering academic difficulties, especially with print language. Gow theorized that the key to success lay in small classes and intensive drill. He moved his family to South Wales and converted the farm where he had run a summer camp into a boarding school for boys.

The Gow School’s program of study is based on an in-depth understanding of language-based learning disabilities. At the heart of the curriculum is Reconstructive Language (RL), our core language remediation program, but content-area courses are also designed and redesigned with student success in mind. Multisensory instruction, executive function skills, and study strategies are emphasized throughout. Faculty members receive ongoing training in methods that maximize student learning potential, and they are committed to providing individualized attention and extra help. Gow teachers know that students’ futures depend on this expertise and dedication.