43 for the BRT

Thank you so much to everyone who supported our bursary campaign. After two month of frenetic activity, ranging from marathons to reading sonnets in a pond, we raised 103% of our target. This will allow us to fund two additional means-tested places next year, pushing us closer towards our target of 43 places by the schools 430th anniversary in 2024.

Thank you so much to everyone who took part, donated or encouraged pupils, staff, parents and OE's during the campaign.

Team up with a friend to run, walk or cycle 43k in January and raise money for the BRT .

In 2024, we will celebrate Emanuel's 430th anniversary. The school has changed a lot over this time, from a school set up by Lady Anne Dacre for the education of 20 poor boys and girls to the Emanuel you know today.

One thing that hasn't changed is our focus on offering opportunities to those around us and being a vehicle for social mobility. That's why we want to celebrate the school's 430th birthday by welcoming 43 children to Emanuel on a completely free place.

You can help us to get there by signing up for 43 for the BRT. Named after our school's charity, the Battersea Rise Trust (BRT), we want to raise £43,000 which will enable two more children to benefit from an Emanuel education.

All you have to do is complete 43 of an activity. This could be running, walking or cycling 43k between you and a colleague, friend or family member or doing 43 of something completely different. The most important thing is that you are supporting the school's effort to provide fully funded free places by raising money through JustGiving.

Please let us know about your chosen challenge so we can share it on social media and help to inspire others.

The challenge is open to all pupils, staff, parents and Old Emanuels. We would really like as many people to take part in this challenge as possible. If we can come together as a whole community, we are certain we can reach our ambitious target of funding two places at Emanuel.

Were doing 43 for the BRT. Are you?

Anna, Lisa and Jack

Email Development@emanuel.org.uk

Here is a testimony from an OE about the impact of their Free Place:

'It is not an exaggeration to say that my Emanuel education has been one the most influential aspects of my personal development, if not the most influential. In turn, therefore, the impact of being awarded a bursary was utterly transformative, as without it such an education simply would not have been possible.  

It goes without saying that the academic training I received at Emanuel was second-to-none, and this has benefitted me in more ways than I can count. Perhaps most notably, Emanuel enabled me to gain a place at Edinburgh University, but the benefits did not stop when I walked over the bridge and out of school for the last time. In fact, the rigour and depth of an Emanuel education have come into their own at Edinburgh, where I am able to continue my studies with confidence, my learning fully supported by the building blocks of both knowledge and technique which I developed at school.    

What is truly special about Emanuel, however, and perhaps the thing that I am most grateful for, is the rounded education which all its pupils receive. Whether this is on the sports field, or, in my case, on the stage, the amount that extra-curricular activities play a part in day-to-day school life is something which should be celebrated, and something of which I appreciate the importance even more now. Extra-curricular activities at Emanuel have shaped my character; performing on stage and public speaking has boosted my confidence (which in turn has enabled me to actively pursue a career in broadcasting) and volunteering at a local primary school during Sixth Form helped me to develop leadership skills.  

This latter point brings me on to another of the things I am most grateful for; the school fosters an ethos of service and giving back, and there seems to be an organic symmetry here; not only did I benefit from an education which I wouldnt have been able to access without a bursary, but I also benefitted from being able to live out this ethos in gratitude and by taking part in the act of giving back myself. My bursary was truly a life-long gift for me and I would urge anyone who is able to support the Emanuel bursary scheme so that future children can access all that Emanuel has to offer, as I hope to do in future.'

Felix Rackow, (OE2013-2018)