Emanuel School

Emanuel School is one of the three schools administered by the Westminster Schools? Foundation. It came into being by the will of Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre, dated 1594. In it she wrote:

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"I will and devise that myne executors shall cause to be erected and builte a meete and convenient house with rooms of habitation for twentie poor folkes, and twentie other poor children..."

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Emanuel School was founded in 1594. At the time Lady Dacre wrote that one of the main aims of the Foundation was

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?for the bringing up of children in virtue and good and laudable arts so that they might better live in time to come by their honest labour?.

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Over four hundred years later we still place the highest regard on knowledge, honesty and hard work as the cornerstones of developing a successful career. At Emanuel we are also committed to:

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fostering a thirst for knowledge and a real commitment to learning

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helping our students to understand their own gifts and to express their talents to the full

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placing a high premium on respect - respect between students, between staff and students, and having self-respect

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developing a strong personal moral code, and the ability to make informed judgements about what is right and wrong

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understanding what it means to take responsibility

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showing our students the importance of caring for others and for the environment

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developing the ability to communicate in an articulate, informed and confident manner

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teaching our students physical, social and practical skills

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helping them to understand the options available after school, both in higher education and careers

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With Lady Dacre's benefaction in 1594 Emanuel Hospital, as it was first called, began. The children wore a long brown tunic, rather similar in cut to that still worn by Christ's Hospital. Thanks to the interest of Queen Elizabeth I, cousin to Lady Dacre, a charter was drawn up, buildings were erected on a site in Westminster, and the school and hospice enjoyed a useful and quiet existence.

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In the year of 1883 it became necessary to seek larger, newer buildings for the children, and the boy boarders, as they all were then, moved to the present buildings on the edge of Wandsworth Common. These buildings had been put up as an orphanage after the crimean war by the Royal Victoria Patriotic Fund, and in a much adapted form still constitute the main teaching block of the school.

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