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Courageous learners. Compassionate leaders.
Child by child, the Gordon School community cultivates successful students by inspiring joyful learning, encouraging intellectual leadership, fostering an empathic spirit and stimulating a drive for positive societal impact.
Summer at Gordon
Our nurturing and compassionate staff are ready to engage your child, encouraging them to venture safely outside their comfort zone this summer as they create new memories, forge friendships and explore Gordon’s twelve-acre campus.
The outdoor classroom
Gordon was founded in 1910 by pediatrician Dr. Helen West Cooke as an Open Air School. Windows were kept open year round to encourage good health, clear thinking and a strong relationship to nature. This connection to nature remains an essential part of the Gordon experience today.
Experiences with lifelong impact
Since 2002, the eighth grade has traveled to Georgia and Alabama to conclude their study of the Civil Rights Movement. They visit historical sites, but it is the people they meet that have the biggest impact; students spend time with veterans of the 1950s and 1960s efforts, and meet community activists working for change in the present day.
Words matter
The default language at Gordon should affirm each and every member of the community. In order to do this, people must recognize that they don’t know everything
about the people they meet, that the way people identify can shift over time, and that language needs to adjust accordingly.
Confident risk-taking
Gordon’s inclusive mission and community spirit allow students stretch themselves and test their own boundaries in new and often public ways. These moments happen every day, from challenging classroom conversations and deeply felt writing projects to the open mics, athletics fields, and service projects that fill the Middle School calendar.
Tuition reimagined
Gordon’s tuition system has equity and inclusion at its core. Launched in 2018, Gordon's Family Individualized Tuition completely rebuilds the financial relationship between a school and its families, making the process of paying tuition simpler, more transparent, more equitable and more predictable.
364
29%
12
6:1
43%
3
The Gordon community
Gordon‘s strength lies in its community: the families and professionals who are drawn to its mission, and the graduates whose live out that mission every day. Get a sample of their stories here.
Assi Coulibaly ’08
Assi is one of five founding members of the five-person Glitter Goddess Collective, a queer, feminist performance group led by Black and indigenous people and people of color.
Tavie Abell ’06
The co-founder and CEO of Govern for America was on the podcast Radical Ones talking about how to make the US government younger and smarter.
Leadership voices
At Gordon, the leaders include the students as well as the Head of School and her team.
The Gordon community
Gordon’s strength lies in its community: the families and professionals who are drawn to its mission, and the graduates whose live out that mission every day. Read their stories here.
Gordon faces in the spotlight
A running list of students, parents, and alumni making news everywhere they go.
Angela Ankoma
The mother of Aniah Ankoma ’19 is leading the Rhode Island Foundation's ambitious Equity Leadership Initiative, and her team is full of Gordon faces.
Happy first day
Hundreds of families shared their first-day-of-school portraits this year - see the full gallery!
Dr. Noni Thomas López
Gordon’s Head of School on cultivating courage and compassion at a progressive school.
This I Believe
A seventh grader is just one of the dozens of Gordon community members who have contributed to this popular NPR segment.
Explore the most recent events, celebrations, and experiences that are the center of daily life at Gordon School.
A look inside
Gordon today
![Ten minutes well spent]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1675360735/gordonschoolorg/z4irg665bt1aecsx0tvy/flashlight350.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1675360735/gordonschoolorg/z4irg665bt1aecsx0tvy/flashlight350.png","width":350}])
Fourth grade joins Nursery exploration of the dark
![Dancing past the discomfort]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1675363022/gordonschoolorg/de1q1xrnqwemjrm4twmm/ballroomdancing350.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1675363022/gordonschoolorg/de1q1xrnqwemjrm4twmm/ballroomdancing350.jpg","width":350}])
Checking in on fifth grade ballroom dancing
![Building a classroom culture through bumper boats]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1674844640/gordonschoolorg/tivhlgbn2zyz5pig1c75/kennedy350.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1674844640/gordonschoolorg/tivhlgbn2zyz5pig1c75/kennedy350.jpg","width":350}])
Surprise fun day in fifth grade
![Gordonians in the headlines]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1674685492/gordonschoolorg/gyp0rldlcfmm9bvbbo5g/headlines350.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1674685492/gordonschoolorg/gyp0rldlcfmm9bvbbo5g/headlines350.jpg","width":350}])
Poets, athletes, scholars, activists and leaders
![Welcoming sculptor Rena X Rong]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1674598082/gordonschoolorg/kggbfcmgctuhkamcsfrw/rong-1350.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1674598082/gordonschoolorg/kggbfcmgctuhkamcsfrw/rong-1350.jpg","width":350}])
Gordon’s twenty-fifth annual Britt Nelson Visiting Artist
![TC Rogers remembered]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1674147874/gordonschoolorg/qgtgebiwysqwzslacxes/tc350.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1674147874/gordonschoolorg/qgtgebiwysqwzslacxes/tc350.png","width":350}])
Dedicated parent and volunteer
![Up to their elbows in art]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1674149495/gordonschoolorg/spylnmdczpgy6g4phhit/paper350.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1674149495/gordonschoolorg/spylnmdczpgy6g4phhit/paper350.png","width":350}])
Third grade prepares to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy
![The power of words and wishes]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1673981764/gordonschoolorg/w3rrtobyqaeuwbncv0yo/350king.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1673981764/gordonschoolorg/w3rrtobyqaeuwbncv0yo/350king.jpg","width":350}])
Putting the “kind,” and the “King,” in Kindergarten
![Unafraid of the dark]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1673371154/gordonschoolorg/rjmds3avorqxaxblbylv/light-17350.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1673371154/gordonschoolorg/rjmds3avorqxaxblbylv/light-17350.jpg","width":350}])
Nursery design challenge leads them into the shadows
![A is for Animal Farm, and alliteration]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1673297131/gordonschoolorg/qshirdhjfs77eoxolgdd/speeches-1copy350.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1673297131/gordonschoolorg/qshirdhjfs77eoxolgdd/speeches-1copy350.jpg","width":350}])
Seventh graders bring Jeffries’ ABCs into their reading of Orwell