PRE
Our Philosophy, Religion and Ethics curriculum is unqiue to Avanti. Its emphasis on critical thinking and mindfulness make it ground breaking. It gives pupils opportunities to deepen their own spiritual insight, consider the world’s major religious beliefs, deepen their knowledge of the distinctive Hindu tradition which inspires the school’s ethos and celebrate the common positive values which all faiths share.
Whilst the curriculum is rooted in the Chaitanya Hindu tradition, the intention is to learn comparatively, so that there is a dialogue about the similarities and differences across faiths and other world views, including humanist, naturalist and atheist.
Ofsted have commented about Avanti schools that, ‘provision in the school for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very strong.’ Our PRE-curriculum provides a platform from where pupils can discuss big life questions. Learning about how to live a life based on the Avanti values. Pupils and parents often comment on how PRE has helped pupils understand more about life and helps them to be a better person.
PRE plays a large role in the development of pupils spiritual insight.
“The basic principle of the living condition is that we have a general propensity to love someone. No one can live without loving someone else. This propensity is present in every living being. Even an animal like a tiger has this loving propensity at least in a dormant stage, and it is certainly present in the human beings. The missing point, however, is where to repose our love so that everyone can become happy.” – Srila Prabhupada
To be truly wealthy is to have a fulfilled heart, and that means to love and be loved. The joy of love is the true wealth inherent in all of us, and learning to recognize it is what spiritual insight is all about.
Avanti School’s Philosophy, Religion & Ethics Curriculum
Introduction
Avanti schools share the same distinctive ethos, founded on three pillars: educational excellence, character formation and spiritual insight. Our curriculum is developed to include a Philosophy, Religion & Ethics (PRE) course, which although taught discretely, is intended to inform all learning throughout pupils’ and students’ time at school. The PRE course is focused on developing seven key values. Humility is the overarching value and unifies the others, which are: empathy, courage, respect, self-discipline, gratitude and integrity. Each value is covered over each one of the 6 academic terms, repeating year on year to extend pupils’ and students’ understanding to show progress over time (e.g. Autumn 1 focus is Empathy).
Included in each term is a focus festival day that unifies the values and character qualities we intend to develop. These are special celebratory days, involving planned lessons, performing arts and opportunities to perform publically. The overview identifies expectations for significant milestones throughout the school career (roughly based on 2 years e.g. end of Year 2, end of Year 4 etc). Yoga, meditation and mindfulness, Sanskrit and RE lessons contribute to the holistic education of pupils and students and are linked with the PRE course.
Summary:
- Weekly/twice weekly sessions lasting 45 minutes (2 sessions in secondary school)
- One value covered each term
- Linked with yoga, meditation and mindful lessons
- Linked with RE and Sanskrit lessons
- Celebration festival days each term (based on Hindu and other religious festivals)
- Assessed termly against Expected Outcomes
Everything we do at Avanti aims to inspire spiritually compassionate changemakers. Our distinctive philosophy, religion and ethics curriculum intends to achieve this aim: through cultivating curiosity to explore life’s big questions with open hearts and minds, through religious learning to foster humility, love, and a sense of interconnectedness with all living beings and divinity, and through ethics to shape conscious changemakers who embody virtues and think critically. In so doing, we equip our children and young people with the tools to lead meaningful, joyful lives, and make a positive contribution in the world.
While parents and carers do have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of PRE (by contacting the school office), we believe that participation can greatly enrich children and young people’s understanding of the world and those around them.
Sri Sri Nitai Gaurachandra Deities at
Avanti Court Primary School
