The Reform movement has launched a national bneimitvah programme for small to medium communities.

Kivunim (“Directions”) is a two-year course catering for congregations with 15 or fewer children in a year group.

They will study a series of topics in their own communities while joining together for four national residential weekends.

The programme’s instigator, Naomi Raanan, the Reform movement’s community education and youth manager, said, “It is aimed at small to medium communities which are often limited by the number of kids they have.”

Some eight communities including Cardiff, Cornwall, Leeds and two from Manchester, are signed up this year, with others including from London expected to join next year.

Its focus is not on the preparation for the bar or batmitzvah ceremony but more broadly on “becoming Reform Jewish adults and thinking about what the future of their Jewish life will look like”, she said.

Some local groups will be meeting weekly, others monthly, looking at topics such as Jewish ritual, tikkun olam and community building.

Participants will also have an app where they can log in “footprints” – points earned for activities during the course such as synagogue attendance, festival celebration, volunteering or doing a tikkun olam project.

“They need 150 footprints to complete the programme,” Ms Raanan said. !At the end of year 8 everyone [who completes it] will get a trip to Alton Towers to celebrate”.