All pupils at Emanuel School are encouraged to be outward looking, to contribute to the community, whether local or global, to learn compassion and respect for others around them and to look outside their own needs.
We work collaboratively with 34 local state primary and secondary schools. Our partner schools are located within easy reach of Emanuel School and are prioritised based on the proportion of pupils on free school meals. We undertake a range of activities including programmes such as Primary Ambitions, Ascent and GCSE Boosters. Our pupils are involved in many of these activities – from support through to delivery of programme content.
In addition, we run football and netball tournaments for partner school children who have little opportunity to represent their schools in matches or tournaments. We share our resources including our much-coveted swimming pool and mini-Astro. We organise weekly swimming lessons for local schools during term time. We host weekly disability football and hockey sessions facilitated by our partners Fulham Football Club Foundation and Wayfarer’s Flyerz. Our biodiversity garden is a wonderful new addition to our site and is a fantastic resource for our local schools too. Many of our pupils volunteer as part of their Duke of Edinburgh, an extremely popular programme, to support our community partners.
In addition, we support a range of charities that are chosen annually by our student body. Charities are both local and global enabling us to raise awareness about critical issues such as homelessness, as well as raise much needed funds. We assemble Christmas hampers for local single parent families in partnership with CHEER, a local charity, annually. We support Ace of Clubs, a homeless charity with food and coat donations. We held our first ‘sleep out’ to raise funds for the Ace of Clubs this year. We organise drives for technology, books, coats and, more recently, essential supplies for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.
We organise activities for the vulnerable members of our community including the elderly and refugees. We are currently running a bi-monthly Ukrainian Coffee and Conversation Hub on Saturdays which enables our Ukrainian neighbours to practise their English, access information about benefits, housing and education and, importantly, to connect with other Ukrainians.
Our community partnership and outreach programme is wide ranging and is only possible through the support of our pupils, staff, parents and Old Emanuels. If you would like to find out more, please contact Lisa Irwin, Head of Community Partnerships and Outreach at Lisa.irwin@emanuel.org.uk
