Innovative On-Farm Programs, Enhanced Tutoring for Dyslexic Students at Poughkeepsie Day School

New partnerships with Sprout Creek Farm and the Kildonan Teacher Training Institute will enhance Poughkeepsie Day School’s capabilities in two crucial areas: conquering learning disabilities and enhancing environmental, agricultural, and scientific understanding.

Since 1934, PDS has been providing Hudson Valley students with progressive, creative education, blending the exhilaration of intellectual discovery with a solid foundation of skills and turning out students who are resourceful, community-spirited, self-reliant and caring.

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Courtesy of Poughkeepsie Day School

The new partnerships come straight from the heart of this tradition. PDS kindergarten students have been learning at Sprout Creek Farm since the 1990s, enjoying hands-on experiences with nature and agriculture that reap rich interdisciplinary results in the classroom. Now, every lowers school class will visit the farm at least once during the school year, with science programming for middle schoolers and service learning for high schoolers rounding out the connection, leveraging the power of the farm experience across grade levels and adding adult ed sessions focused on sustainable agriculture.

Orton-Gillingham Language Training is a multi-sensory, structured approach to remediate language-based learning differences. The KTTI, developed from the Kildonan School, is the areas premier provider of education for the dyslexic learner. Each student in the program will receive daily one-to-one language skills tutoring from Kildonan Teacher Training Institute-accredited teachers, working with material that will be reinforced and supported within the Poughkeepsie Day classroom and curriculum.
"Knowledge does not become wisdom until it is put into practice,” observes Head of School Ben Chant. “These partnerships allow us to take the learning from the classroom and practice it out loud, and help the children develop skills that give the world the agile, resourceful, self-directed citizens it most needs."

For more information on the new offerings, contact PDS online or by calling (845) 462-7600.