Arrowsmith School

I was someone who struggled to make friends, was bullied, and did not always understand academics growing up. So it was decided that I would attend this school and my life did a complete 180. One year into my three-year experience I noticed a difference in myself. I was understanding things better in an academic sense AND I had the ability to make friends, something I did not have prior to attending Arrowsmith. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone considering attending or sending someone to attend to do so. Everyone is incredibly kind and supportive, and I don't just mean the other students. The teachers are one-of-a-kind. There really is no better group of people that I have ever met than the people at Arrowsmith and the program itself works wonders. It is a truly wonderful place that changed my life in all the best ways and it has the ability to change anyone's life in this way.

The Arrowsmith School has fundamentally changed my life for the better. Before I did the program, I was struggling immensely with school. I was behind in my classes, staying up late to complete assignments, and emotionally depleted. It was unsustainable. I had tried everything from tutors to strategies but none of them worked for me. I came to Arrowsmith hoping that I could even see the slightest change. Me, my family, and my teachers were all shocked about the truly drastic results. My grades were boosted, I participated in the classroom, my self confidence soared, and my ability to make and maintain connections skyrocketed. Reading became easy (it's now my favorite activity whereas I avoided it before), and I no longer make errors in math (like transposing numbers or reading a x as a +). It's like I'm a new and improved version of myself.During the program, the Arrowsmith staff were engaging and helpful. My teacher checked in with me regularly and made me feel supported and guided through the program. Whenever I was frustrated, I could confide in her and she pushed me to keep going. Barbara Arrowsmith did the assessments of me herself. Her analysis was far more insightful and helpful then my own high school teachers who saw me everyday!I can't say enough about the impact that Arrowsmith has made in my life. I am forever grateful. Many of my peers who have learning differences and have done the program as well have noticed great results, too. I would recommend this program to absolutely everyone. It changes lives for the better. Thank you, Arrowsmith!!

Arrowsmith is hands-down the best program for cognitive exercises to help children with learning difficulties with math, reading and writing. The teachers and staff are all very dedicated and specialized in the children's success in the program.

My son started Arrowsmith September 2022. Since he started I had noticed a lot more communication and focus, his other programs he is in has commented to me about how engaging he has become and I must continue what I am doing. Looking forward to see more gains as he continues his journey in Arrowsmith. I am so happy I choose found Arrowsmith.

As parents of three former Arrowsmith students I cannot say enough about the care and consideration of every student’s unique learning profile and character. Mr. Kinsey, Principal, was patient with our many questions and responsive with updates along our journey. Teachers are incredibly invested in each student. Beyond all of that is the remarkable change in our kids. Abilities in reading, writing and math improved significantly - from bare phonetic readers to voraciously reading complex novels, from non-identification of letter sounds and math concepts to excelling in a mainstream curriculum. The Arrowsmith program has completely altered the future opportunities and self-confidence of our kids. What else could a parent wish for their kids.

The Arrowsmith School was truly a life changing gift for my 30 year old daughter who is an educator. After watching the TED Talk “The Woman Who Changed Her Brain,” I thought the course might be helpful for her. She is very bright but her issues with executive processing were causing her much anxiety as well as getting in the way of being an excellent teacher and realizing her potential in life in general. I called the Arrowsmith School and was able to get all of my questions answered and even met with an instructor to understand and sample the symbol relations course they recommended. The course was done online at her own pace and my daughter met weekly with an instructor. There are 10 levels in the course with several sublevels in each. My daughter was motivated to complete the levels so she could move up to the next level. The satisfaction and pride she felt as she mastered a level was exciting for me to see. In a short period of time, her executive processing abilities improved dramatically and her anxiety significantly reduced. The course has helped her in the following areas: confidence, problem solving without overwhelm, focus, prioritizing information and tasks, driving and spatial awareness, self-motivation, communication, social skills, accuracy of her work, making sense of the world, and overall happiness. I highly recommend the course to anyone struggling with any of these issues and feeling that these issues are limiting them or causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. If you are motivated to change your life with a proven tool, this course may be exactly what you are looking for.

We are big fans of Arrowsmith as it changed our son’s life.In our country (the UK) we could find no schools that sought to remedy learning difficulties rather than just providing accommodations for them so, having learned of the Arrowsmith program, we decided to try it. Following interview we were offered a place for an expected duration of four years.From day one the school worked hard to make our son feel comfortable in very new surroundings and he acclimatized quickly. The exercise regime coupled with English and Maths as academic subjects was completely different to what he would have experienced at home (following the same curriculum as everyone else with no possibility of success and no focused attempt to remedy his learning difficulties).Our son is bright, keen to learn, but had language processing difficulties ranging from mild to very severe, which made learning a frustrating challenge for him. At Arrowsmith improvement occurred quickly in some areas, while others proved much more stubborn to deal with. What was noticeable almost immediately, though, was a change in his level of confidence, and when family members back home (some of whom had expressed doubts about what we were undertaking) saw him during the first Xmas vacation a number remarked on the ‘new’ him. To illustrate, where previously our son would have avoided conversation he now actively participated, often bombarding relatives with questions and information.At the end of four years we had a difficult decision to make about staying on or going home, but we had enough belief in what we were seeing for him to stay for two further years, as at key points in the cognitive exercises (predicted by staff) abilities leapt, and at the end of his time at Arrowsmith he won the Director’s Award for his overall achievements including advancing five grades in Maths over the last year and making substantial progress in English.Our son still has some residual difficulties, but this has not stopped him achieving, and on returning to the UK he has passed GCSE State exams in several subjects including the key ones of Maths, English and Science in Year 11 (Grade 10) and is currently on course to get three qualifications in Year 13 (Grade 12), potentially paving a path to university if that is what he wants – not bad for someone about whom ‘experts’ said, prior to leaving the UK, that he would never achieve anything academically. We are absolutely clear that Arrowsmith made a positive and significant difference to his life. Barbara Arrowsmith Young is visionary and we will always be grateful to her and her team for what they did for him.Mary & AshleyI want to thank Arrowsmith for the help that I received while I was there. The years spent there were some of the happiest for me. There are two main reasons for this. The first is because for the first time in my life I felt that I made real progress and that those achievements were my own. This is particularly true of the cognitive exercises as the only way you can move on is if you master them, and boy some of them were tough! However, when I mastered them I felt that I moved on academically as well, and my confidence started to grow. This was also a consequence of the Arrowsmith approach which is to give support and reassurance if you don’t succeed at something so that you won’t feel scared about trying it again.The second reason why my Arrowsmith years were happy ones was because of the lovely people who I came across there. This certainly includes the staff as well as my fellow students. If anyone had a success everyone celebrated it with them and if unfortunately someone struggled there would be a lot of kindness and support for them. I am pleased to say that I have retained friendships from my years there and love that some of them have even come to visit me in the UK.I will always be grateful for the opportunities that Arrowsmith gave me which have allowed me to move back home and succeed in my new school.Ethan

Our journey to Arrowsmith started a few years prior to actually enrolling.We had heard about the program first through a doctor and then a year later through a tutor. Both had a clients successfully complete the program and shared stories of great outcomes.Over the course of a year or so... we read/watched/listened to everything we could get our hands on about Arrowsmith...but realized that our only options were to send our son to a boarding school or move to another state.  Because this would be a huge decision for our family, we wanted to do our due diligence. We reached out to a child psychologist that we had been working with since our son was 2 1/2 and a Professor of Psychology at Marquette University to take a deeper look at the research studies on the Arrowsmith Program.  Our son was diagnosed as high functioning on the autism spectrum and since he was an A-typical candidate we wanted to be sure that it would still be a good fit to address the deficit areas in his learning.  Both professionals agreed that our son would not only be a great candidate for the program but also thought we could see promising results!So we finally decided to take the leap of faith and move to Grand Rapids, MI to attend an Arrowsmith at St. Stephen's school.  We spent two academic school years in MI and the summer between in Toronto to attend their summer intensive program.When we integrated him back into our local school system he found attending class much easier as well as his ability to attend them independent of aide support. Since we started Arrowsmith later in his education (6th grade), we still had work to do in order to catch him up in areas of deeper reading comprehension and writing.  But with the help of a tutor and having his deficit areas strengthened, his brain was ready and able to learn...so we just simply went back and plugged in some of the learning gaps.  This is why I always advise parents with younger kids who are struggling learners to not wait!  The earlier you begin intervention the easier it will be for them to transition back to the regular classroom without those gaps in their education.Fast forward to today…our son is a junior in high school with a 3.8 GPA. He is taking all regular education classes with no support other than extended time on tests when needed. We are looking at Universities which is something before Arrowsmith was not certain would happen for him. We absolutely, feel that this has been one of the best decisions we have made in our son's life to date.  We firmly believe that if we didn’t attend Arrowsmith, he would still be a struggling learner and reliant upon others to help him get through his day.  I knew that if we didn't try this program, I would have spent a lifetime wondering....'What if...?'   So if you are reading this and wondering ‘What if…’ I encourage you to take that leap of faith and start wondering what all the possibilities that can be for your child!

I was in the Arrowsmith program for almost a year and I have noticed benefits that help me a lot in everyday life.My memory has improved. My attention span has increased, when I am in a university lecture I am able to stay locked in and my mind does not wander. My social skills have improved as well, I am able to follow conversations better and pay attention better when someone is talking to me.Overall this program is definitely worth the cost and patience.

My journey at Arrowsmith began in grade school, where I attended part time (to judge whether or not it would help my mental, social, and educational challenges). I remained part-time for a number of months, and was promptly arranged to go full time, after a dinner party where my father had said something sarcastic, and I actually identified it as sarcastic (which I had never done before). For the first time, I could remember what my parents asked me to do after walking a few paces. For the first time, I could begin to recognize social cues and behaviour. For the first time, I could recognize relationships between people. It was because of those things that I stayed with Arrowsmith for three years before heading off to public high school. During my time there, I met incredible and caring teachers that made me feel welcome, and constantly encouraged me to keep learning every day. The work was intense, but by growing accustomed to that helped in the future for when I went through high school, and all the way to my first year of university. When you are the individual doing the work each day, there's no apparent change except to those around you. In my case, it was my parents, and in the three years, their kid who started with a completely impaired memory, ended up having a memory greater than them combined. It is because of these things, that I would recommend any child, teenager, or adult who experience these challenges every day, to go to Arrowsmith and begin to change their brain for the better.