Aims & Objectives
At L’avenir we focus on:
• Building up the foundations of a sound physical culture: health, stamina, agility, balance, rhythm, coordination, control

• Inculcating a love for Beauty and Harmony
• Understanding one’s emotions and responses
• Building up the positive qualities and attitudes in oneself
• Training the powers of the mind: concentration, observation, imagination, clarity
• Providing an atmosphere where the children can come in touch with their inner self and express it in their learning and interactions

Curriculum
“New education… is really a new attitude towards the child. An attitude of understanding and love, and above all an attitude of respect. An attitude of acceptance, of patience; the restraint of a delicate hand that dare not open a flower-bud nor disturb a baby in the midst of his first experiments, a student in the course of his early work. An acceptance of childhood as such, acknowledging its value as a necessary period in man’s development. A leniency, more than leniency, an acceptance of the child’s mistakes, of his stumblings, his hesitations, his slowness… A conviction that the more a child remains fully and leisurely a child, the more and better he will grow into a good adult…. A conviction that the child has within himself everything that allows a true education, and particularly a ceaseless activity, incessantly revived, in which he is totally engrossed, the activity of a growing being who is continuously developing and to whom for that very reason, our help may be useful…” (Roger Cousinet)

• Physical Culture: to enhance strength, stamina, balance, coordination, grace, agility, flexibility, hygiene, health, gross & fine motor control...
• Vital Education: to develop the qualities of generosity, concern for others and nature, sympathy, honesty, frankness, love, enthusiasm, cheerfulness, confidence, trust, courage, etc. and refinement of the senses
• Mental Education: to develop the faculties of concentration, observation, reasoning, imagination, judgment, memory
• Psychic Education: quiet time, exploring the inner world of silence, beauty, joy

Methodology
In our work we are guided by the following principles, as enumerated by Sri Aurobindo:
1. ‘The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task-master, he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose. He does not actually train the pupil’s mind, he only shows him how to perfect his instruments of knowledge and helps and encourages him in the process. He does not impart knowledge to him, he shows him how to acquire knowledge for himself.’
2. ‘The second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its own growth. ... The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use.’
3. ‘The third principle of education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be. ... We must not take up the nature by its roots from the earth in which it must grow or surround the mind with images and ideas of a life which is alien to that in which it must physically move. If anything has to be brought in from outside, it must be offered, not forced on the mind. A free and natural growth is the condition of genuine development.’