Helping gifted kids thrive.

Cluster. Accelerate. Celebrate.

We cluster motivated and cognitively gifted students in small groups with their intellectual peers and provide them with an inquiry-based, accelerated, self-paced curriculum in a school environment that celebrates them for who they are.

Our Student Code emphasizes what we teach our kids and what we expect our graduates to bring forward into the world — inquiry about the truth and respect for themselves and others.

Kids who create knowledge.

When kids play a central part in determining what they are going to learn, they dig deeper, reach farther, stay on task longer, retain more, spot contradictions better, and make conceptual connections faster.

With inquiry-based learning, kids learn how to learn anything — and they become creators of knowledge, rather than simply consumers of facts.

A pioneering idea, still going strong.

GATE Academy was founded in 1998 by two teachers who were pioneers in inquiry-based education. It was incorporated as the Marin School for Gifted Education, and operated under the name Dunham Academy — in honor of the founders, who retired in 2009 — until 2012.

The Board of Trustees adopted the name GATE Academy to more clearly reflect the children we serve — G.A.T.E. students. Our mission remains the same: to provide gifted and motivated children with an inquiry-based, accelerated education that allows them to learn at their own pace.

GATE Academy is located on the landmark St. Vincent’s campus.