Looking Out

Emanuel School is a name known to every parent living in the Nappy Valley area and beyond. Just a ten-minute walk from Clapham Junction and well connected to the entire city and its outskirts, but an impressive 60% of pupils walk or cycle to school, arriving at a 12-acre leafy oasis in Battersea on the northern edge of Wandsworth Common. The school boasts fantastic facilities with an on-site sports centre, astro fields and a pool, as well as more fields and a boathouse off-site. Back at school, and the recently opened Dacre Building is a bustling hub for arts and humanities, including a state-of-the-art film studio and media suite, very popular with students.

Emanuel has been on this site since 1883 but was founded by Lady Anne Dacre in Westminster in 1594, established to educate 20 children for free – ten boys and ten girls – and building the foundations of a school focused on the co-education of ten to 18-year-olds, just as it does today.

The school has a welcoming, friendly and kind community. The co-educational system means no stereotyping or gender separation and there’s an even balance of boys and girls in the population of over 900. It’s only on the sports fields where there is some distinction, but both do rowing and cricket with great team successes, and last year’s head girl played on the boys’ first XI cricket team.

Emanuel also prides itself on its local and global partnerships. For several years they have been involved with Christ Church Primary School, with Year Six pupils working side by side on anything from robotics to mime, learning about each other and making friends; the benefits are clear for both sides. Headmaster Robert Milne comments, “Looking outwards, showing empathy and helping others is at the heart of Emanuel.

Now Emanuel plans to expand its outreach work to schools with a particularly high percentage of pupils on free school meals. Starting this September is their Primary Ambitions Programme, where all Lower Sixth students will be off-timetable on Friday afternoons to mentor, teach or coach local primary school pupils in creative, STEM, sports and language taster sessions. Teenagers will have the chance to try something new, through which they will thrive and develop confidence, kindness and leadership, and gain experience to boost their university applications.

Other areas of outreach include football supported by the Fulham Football Foundation, where Year 4s who don’t usually have access to facilities, battle it out in a tournament, vying for the coveted trophy. Emanuel’s charitable organisation, the Battersea Rise Trust (BRT), is establishing relationships with schools lacking in resources and Emanuel is partnering with them, as well as lending their pool to local schools. Head Robert Milne says, “We are very excited by our partnerships with 17 local primary schools and community charities; it’s important to us that Emanuel is a good neighbour.”

For the older pupils there are links with state secondaries including Westminster City School, with projects covering public speaking, Model UN, and film-making schemes during the holidays.

Every year, 18-20 Lower Sixth students spend three weeks teaching English in a primary school in Tamil Nadu, India, living with local families and experiencing the culture. Now Emanuel is launching a new initiative in The Gambia for their Year 10 pupils.

John Layng, Assistant Head, Co-Curricular says, “The most effective projects are two-way, where individuals and organisations on both sides will benefit from the partnership. Emanuel’s aim is to reach out to inspire, to share and to learn with our partners.” These partnerships, in tandem with the school’s aim of doubling its free places to coincide with its 430th anniversary, make Emanuel an exciting school to watch.