The Avanti Way

Our Mission 鈥 Why We Exist
Avanti exists to help each person become a well-rounded human being through spiritual insight, character formation and educational excellence, and so make the world a better place.
Our Core Practices 鈥 How We Live
We have six foundational practices that we all strive to live by:
We realise our incredible potential by nurturing all聽parts of ourselves 鈥 intellectual,聽emotional, physical, and spiritual.
We choose to respond to life with goodness and thus nurture goodness within us.
We care for and respect all life 鈥 human, animal, and plant 鈥 and live in a way that causes the least possible harm.
We each observe the one same reality from our own unique perspective and engage in open-minded dialogue to deeply enrich our vision.
We serve a greater purpose by living a meaningful and satisfying life of contribution.
We are nourished and nourish others through relationships that fulfil our need to love and be loved, encouraging us to be the best we can be.
Through living these practices, we hold ourselves accountable for our own wellbeing and that of our whole community.
Our Vision 鈥 Where we are Going
We use the Tree of Life as a metaphor to guide every member in our community to support and nurture each other in three interdependent parts:
- Spiritual insight. A healthy tree has deep, and strong roots hidden beneath the soil, grounding us to withstand the storms of life. The roots of our spiritual life similarly serve to keep us grounded and energised while supporting our trunk and crown to stand tall above the ground. Watering our roots frequently is essential to their care, reminding us that our journey within, which is rarely visible to others, is essential to find our true Self.
- Character formation. A healthy tree has a strong trunk that stands tall and firm, withstanding the swirling winds of change and challenge. Our strength of character similarly enables us to engage positively with all that life has to offer us. Our character stands on spiritual roots and grows stronger through pursuing the quest to make the world a better place, starting with oneself.
- Educational excellence. A healthy tree has a flourishing crown with fruits that enrich the lives of others. Our unique gifts are nurtured through educational excellence and similarly enable us to contribute to the world. Our gifts are made purposeful by strong character and flourish by directing them towards a greater purpose.
When all these three areas of life are developed and healthy, we can live meaningful lives of contribution, making the world a better place.

The Roots 鈥 Spiritual Insight to Go Deep
Our vision for spiritual insight is one where our interconnectedness with all living beings and with the universe, urges acts born out of humility and love, and the Self is perceived beyond its layers of coverings. Learning blossoms for these seekers as a quest for self-discovery and opens the door to their unlimited potential, an antidote to the emptiness of a materialistic or mechanistic worldview. The curriculum unveils the possibilities of sacredness in every moment and so engenders a deeply positive attitude to life, enduring happiness and heartfelt relationships.

The Trunk 鈥 Character Formation to Grow Strong
Our vision for character formation is one where virtues are taught by example and a supportive community of learners fosters a powerful sense of individual and collective purpose. Learning develops for these conscious changemakers as a quest for making the world a better place, starting with oneself. The capacity to internalise and put into practice what we have learned is the true test of learning. Building this capacity demands an experiential, virtues-led curriculum that embraces collaboration, custodianship and global perspectives.

The Crown 鈥 Educational Excellence to Give Back
Our vision for educational excellence is one where deeply inspired teachers nurture joyful students and nourish their innate passion for learning. Learning is a quest to discover each student鈥檚 unique gifts and potential and lay the foundation for their lifelong journey of learning. This is inseparable from high academic standards, where a challenging holistic curriculum cultivates independently thoughtful and reflective students by working towards a sense of mastery, emphasising depth, and not just breadth.
Our Vision Explored:
The Roots 鈥 Spiritual Insight to Go Deep
How we recognise spiritual insight:
- All members of the school community are committed to their own personal spiritual journey.
- Systems and structures support wellbeing and the development of heartfelt relationships between members of the school community.
- Students have stirring experiences of an inclusive and relevant offer for spiritual cultivation and develop their own insight into the essence and application of spirituality.
The Trunk 鈥 Character Formation to Grow Strong
How we recognise character formation:
- Avanti鈥檚 virtues of empathy, gratitude, courage, integrity, self-discipline and respect are tangible throughout school life and are incorporated throughout the whole curriculum;
- Student contribution to leadership is nurtured and developed;
- Students make moral choices, displaying stewardship and service towards all life and the earth鈥檚 resources.
The Crown 鈥 Educational Excellence to Give Back
How we recognize educational excellence:
- There is a culture of intellectual curiosity, including a focus on connecting research to classroom practice, and where learning examines the big questions of life to deepen motivation and personal insight;
- Students display the ability and willingness to listen to others with an open mind, questioning their own assumptions and engaging in empathic dialogue;
- All members of the school community are inspired and joyful through meaningful engagement as co-educators.
Our Core Practices Explored:
We realise our incredible potential by nurturing all聽parts of ourselves 鈥 intellectual,聽emotional, physical 鈥 and spiritual.
We question our various layers of identity, and seek to ascertain at a most fundamental level, 鈥淲ho am I?鈥, while acknowledging the profound implications of this practice for equality, inclusiveness, and interconnectedness.
We aspire towards a life that elevates our consciousness and expands our domains of concern.
We use spiritual insight as a buffer to the pulls and pushes of materialism so that we can have a healthy relationship with our needs and desires.
We are attuned to the prospect of humility and unlimited potential being held in perfect balance; we are made of something incredible and are part of something even greater.
We choose to respond to life with goodness and thus nurture goodness within us.
We recognise that we cannot always choose our circumstances, yet we can always choose our response.
We know that life experience informs our preferences and choices, and so we pay attention to our current choices because they will inform our future.
We acknowledge the critical role of this mindset in emotional and mental wellbeing.
We make time to reflect on our choices and we continuously nurture our ability to make good ones.
We care for and respect all life 鈥 human, animal and plant 鈥 and live in a way that causes the least possible harm.
We are sensitive to our impact on others and the world around us.
We follow a vegetarian diet in school to minimise our harm to sentient beings and to the environment.
We minimise our environmental impact through mindful choices around purchasing, waste management and energy use.
We actively seek to dismantle existing harm and address its underlying causes with well-informed solutions; where prevention is not possible, we seek solutions to mitigate and minimise the harm caused.
We each observe the one same reality from our own unique perspective and engage in open-minded dialogue to deeply enrich our vision.
We accept that ours is not the only valid truth and that others may hold perspectives that we may be blind to.
We are alert to our own unconscious biases.
We are sensitive when disagreeing or challenging.
We engage in meaningful discussions, that go beyond the simply operational or technical, to address subtle route causes.
We serve a greater purpose by living a meaningful and satisfying life of contribution.
We recognise that each of us flourishes by finding a greater purpose, something beyond ourselves, where we can contribute and find meaning.
We are confident in the potential of both individual and collective endeavour.
We regularly encourage each other to deeply consider what it is that we are doing, why we are doing it, and who it is that we are serving.
We are conscious of our own personal motivations to be part of this community and challenge ourselves when these motivations are simply mundane.
We are nourished and nourish others through relationships that fulfil our need to love and be loved, encouraging us to be the best we can be.
We place real value on relationships and the courage and hard work it can take to meaningfully engage in them.
We engage with love as a verb, centred on serving others.
We are able to rise above the constant need for external validation because we are secure in our relationships with those whom we care about and who care about us.
We know that, in the end, the level of happiness we experience is proportionate to our capacity to give and receive love.
