THE FIRST HINDU FAITH SCHOOL IN UK
THE FIRST HINDU FAITH SCHOOL IN UK
The Krishna Avanti Hindu Faith School in the north London borough of Harrow is Britain’s first state backed Hindu School and comes complete with shrines, a meditation garden and Vastu Shastra – a Vedic design system applied especially to temples. The school offers yoga sessions, green credentials, an exclusively Hindu intake and a vegetarian menu. But the most striking difference is at the centre of the building: a temple carved from Makrana marble, the same material used to build the Taj Mahal. Around 200 people in the Indian town of Makrana worked on the school's centrepiece, carving out scenes from the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture, before it was shipped over in boxes to Harrow.
The I-Foundation, the charity behind Krishna Avanti plans to open many such schools across the country. The emphasis here is on inclusiveness, despite an entirely Hindu intake. Hindu identity flows through the school. Each classroom has its own shrine where pupils can leave offerings, whether citrus fruits or felt-tipped pens, and there are multihued wall displays bearing Sanskrit and images of deities and farm animals. The school ethos is conducive to a calm atmosphere.
The school became an academy on 1 September 2012.
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/jan/29/krishna-avanti-hindu-primary-school