In 1950, Kildonan co-founder and visionary Diana Hanbury King came to this country from England. She began teaching at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. At the time, this was one of only a few schools with a program for dyslexic students under the aegis of Anna Gillingham. Trained by Dr. Samuel Orton, Helene Durbrow directed the program.  With encouragement from Dr. Orton, Helene Durbrow opened Camp Mansfield, a summer program for dyslexic students in Vermont. Mrs. King, personally trained by Anna Gillingham herself, spent several summers teaching there. 

In 1955, Mrs. King was inspired to create her own camp, named Dunnabeck, in Western Pennsylvania. After running the camp for 14 years, she met Kurt Goldman, a father of a Dunnabeck camper. So impressed and motivated by his son’s progress, he encouraged Mrs. King to open a school for dyslexic students and offered to provide the necessary funding.

In 1969, The Kildonan School opened in Bucks County on a rented campus in Solebury, PA. The first year 12 students enrolled, but the school flourished and eventually outgrew the facility. Under the leadership of Leisket Mills, then Board of Trustees Chair, a search began to find a new campus. 

In 1980, Kildonan moved to the foothills of the Berkshires in Amenia, NY.  The 460-acre campus had been the site of Barlow School and had several dormitories, a schoolhouse, a library, and an art building. 

In 1983, Camp Dunnabeck moved from Pennsylvania and became a part of The Kildonan School. Over time and supported by the trustees, Kildonan added a large boys’ dormitory, a girls’ dormitory, and an elementary building to house day students in grades 1 through 6.

Orton-Gillingham’s instruction remained at the forefront of Kildonan’s curriculum, which set our school apart from all others. Horseback riding, skiing, and a strong art program, all of which were a part of the original plan in Pennsylvania, continued to play an important role in the extra-curricular program. Our curriculum and campus continue to evolve and grow throughout our long history, yet the school’s philosophy and objectives remain unchanged. Kildonan continues its mission to meet the needs of the dyslexic population by strengthening language skills, providing stimulating subject matter courses, and building confidence and self-esteem.

Mrs. King traveled throughout the USA and abroad to make literacy available to all by teaching teachers in the Orton-Gillingham approach. To follow in her footsteps, Kildonan established the Kildonan Teacher Training Institute (KTTI) in 1997.  KTTI empowers individuals with dyslexia and supports literacy widely through the education of teachers in the best practices of the Orton-Gillingham approach by offering OG training, practicum supervision, student diagnostics, and 1-to-1 OG tutoring. 

In 2003, Kildonan became accredited by the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (AOGPE) both as a training site and as a school providing the appropriate education for dyslexic students. The following year, Camp Dunnabeck and KTTI were accredited as well.

In August 2019, after fifty years of positively impacting the lives of students with dyslexia and language-based learning differences, The Kildonan School closed due to low enrollment and increasing costs to maintain a large campus. Fifty years of students’ successes also affect positive change in their families, communities, and our world, but still, the Kildonan organization moves onward!  

A year later, in 2020, Kildonan sold the Amenia property and moved its operations onto the campus of the Marvelwood School in Kent, Connecticut, and a historic partnership was formed, Kildonan@Marvelwood.  Kildonan is now offering one-to-one Orton Gillingham tutoring services to Marvelwood students. The Marvelwood School is a private non-profit school with grades 9 through 12. Like Kildonan, Marvelwood’s small class size, strong core values, respect for diversity, and appreciation for the value of service to others made this a natural partnership.

Instructors trained through KTTI are now part of Marvelwood’s Clark Center for Learning Support, employing Orton-Gillingham, which supports students with language-based learning challenges.

Also, in 2020, Kildonan’s Camp Dunnabeck became an online summer camp as a way to continue its mission during the pandemic; Camp Dunnabeck 2.0 was established. In an innovative, immersive, and interactive camp experience, campers learned fun new interactive technologies and made new friends without spatial restrictions. Connecting each student with a highly skilled Orton-Gillingham Practioner trained to help students prevent summer slide. 

Today, Kildonan continues to thrive providing: 1-to-1 Orton-Gillingham tutorials to Marvelwood students-Kildonan@Marvelwood; Orton-Gillingham training to teachers to teach students with dyslexia or language-based learning differences, Kildonan Teacher Training Institute; and  1-to-1 Orton-Gillingham tutorials our 6-week summer program-Kildonan’s Camp Dunnabeck, helping students since 1955! As we move onward, we are excited to share Kildonan’s mission and continue to transform lives!

Our mission is to reveal and illuminate the strengths of individuals or language-based learning differences!