Dear pupils, parents/carers and staff,
The Trustees and Senior Leadership team of the Avanti Schools Trust are delighted to welcome the students, parents and school staff from the south-west Steiner schools at Bristol, Exeter and Frome into the Avanti family of schools. You will all know that Avanti currently runs secondary and primary schools in the London area and in Leicester, and that we aim to offer to all children in our schools a high quality education which stresses educational excellence, character development and spiritual insights.
All of us at Avanti understand that your school, whether in Bristol, Exeter or Frome, has been through a troubling period recently, and that worries and anxieties will inevitably exist. In due course, there will need to be carefully considered and fully articulated changes in these schools, but we hope you are reassured by the essence of the Avanti Way and what we stand for. Our ambition is that these schools become as high quality as all our other schools, but this does not mean discarding all that has been achieved in the past.
Central to Waldorf education and to the Avanti Way is developing a teaching methodology which strives to develop pupils’ intellectual, artistic and practical skills in an integrated and holistic way, and the cultivation of pupils’ imagination and creativity as a central focus. The emphasis on experiencing oral traditions, the role of ritual and routine, and the role of the arts and creativity all have resonance not just with the Avanti way but with Waldorf education. So whilst there will be changes, the Avanti Trustees give you a commitment that we will work to raise standards in Avanti Gardens, Avanti Hall and Avanti Park, by offering a coherent, invigorating and challenging education which transforms and improves these schools, and which excites and motivates all who learn and teach in them.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Younger
Chair of Avanti Schools Trust Board of Trustees
