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15/09/2008
First UK Hindu School Opens
The first UK state-funded Hindu School has opened.
The Krishna-Avanti Primary School in Edgware, north London, offers an education based on Hindu values and beliefs, but lessons will follow the national curriculum.
Pupils will have the opportunity to practice meditation and yoga. They will follow a strictly vegetarian diet. There will be lessons in the classical Sanskrit language on offer.
Thirty, five-year-old reception class pupils will be based in temporary accommodation in a neighbouring school before moving into a purpose-built school next year.
The new school, being constructed on a £11m five-acre site, will reflect the Hindu concern for the environment, with grass roofs, gardens, glass buildings and a ground-water cooling system.
There will be 236 places at the school; demand is expected to be high with over 40,000 Hindus living in the London Borough of Harrow.
Chairman Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain of Accord, a new coalition of religious and non-religious groups and individuals pressing for reform of faith schools policy, said: "It is vital for the good of both the children and wider society that the Krishna-Avanti teaches appreciation of all traditions, does not opt out of local Religious Education Syllabus, does not discriminate against employing non-Hindu staff nor bar children of other faiths from having the right to attend."
Rasamanbla Das, a student at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, who helped adapt the locally-agreed religious education syllabus for the new school said: "We have tried to enhance the syllabus by looking at what Hinduism can add, such as inclusivity and the equality of all living beings.
"It recognises the agency of the individual. It's very much an interactive and experiential approach to education."
(GK/JM)
The Krishna-Avanti Primary School in Edgware, north London, offers an education based on Hindu values and beliefs, but lessons will follow the national curriculum.
Pupils will have the opportunity to practice meditation and yoga. They will follow a strictly vegetarian diet. There will be lessons in the classical Sanskrit language on offer.
Thirty, five-year-old reception class pupils will be based in temporary accommodation in a neighbouring school before moving into a purpose-built school next year.
The new school, being constructed on a £11m five-acre site, will reflect the Hindu concern for the environment, with grass roofs, gardens, glass buildings and a ground-water cooling system.
There will be 236 places at the school; demand is expected to be high with over 40,000 Hindus living in the London Borough of Harrow.
Chairman Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain of Accord, a new coalition of religious and non-religious groups and individuals pressing for reform of faith schools policy, said: "It is vital for the good of both the children and wider society that the Krishna-Avanti teaches appreciation of all traditions, does not opt out of local Religious Education Syllabus, does not discriminate against employing non-Hindu staff nor bar children of other faiths from having the right to attend."
Rasamanbla Das, a student at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, who helped adapt the locally-agreed religious education syllabus for the new school said: "We have tried to enhance the syllabus by looking at what Hinduism can add, such as inclusivity and the equality of all living beings.
"It recognises the agency of the individual. It's very much an interactive and experiential approach to education."
(GK/JM)
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