Beyond the Classroom

Sports philosophy

Sport is an integral part of day-to-day life here at Emanuel. At the heart of our offering is an understanding that sport and activity provides opportunities for improving health and fitness, boosting wellbeing and developing character. We believe in engendering a love of sport and activity, where every pupil can benefit from being involved as part of team and as an individual.

Our sporting programme allows pupils to be introduced to a wide variety of sports from an early age, developing a broad range of athletic skills and producing superior all-round games players. As pupils progress through the school, they can begin to specialise in their chosen sports, but still retain the breadth of opportunity should they wish to diversify. Current pupils have achieved significant representative success and honours, including competing for England in rowing, numerous county representatives in netball, hockey and rugby, and selection for professional performances pathways including Surrey County Cricket, London Pulse Netball, West Ham United FC, Harlequins and London Irish rugby clubs. We are aiming to be the top coeducational school for sport in south-west London and to build on recent successes at national and regional level across our sports. We are equally passionate about girls’ and boys’ sports and we are excited about the developments to come in the years ahead through coaching and facilities, as well as building our reputation as one of the very best co-educational sports schools in London.

Representing the school and opportunities to improve

We are ambitious, running over 1000 inter-school fixtures each year with significantly more teams than many other independent schools in our performance sports. Our sports facilities are very busy throughout the week with training and fixtures with significant numbers of pupils having the opportunity of representing the school and competing alongside their peers. The majority of these matches take place on Saturday mornings meaning the school and sports grounds are alive with pupils and parents at the weekend, though regional and national cup competition fixtures will often be scheduled for midweek. Our co-ed House sports competition ensures that girls and boys have opportunities to compete alongside one another as part of their House teams.

Training sessions take place before and after school, as well as during designated Games afternoons for each year group, with a full programme of sports specific strength and conditioning to prepare our athletes from Year 9 upwards. All sessions are coached by highly-skilled, qualified sports specialists many with extensive experience within professional sport as competitors and coaches.

Current and future sports facilities

Our on-site sports facilities are excellent with Emanuel pupils benefiting from 12-acres of playing fields, a large sports hall with a climbing wall, two fitness suites and dance studio, a new dedicated strength and conditioning gym, a mini-astro, indoor and outdoor cricket nets, tennis and netball courts, and an indoor swimming pool. Off-site, the school has its own boathouse at Barnes Bridge with its very own strength and conditioning suite, ensuring our rowers occupy a prime position on the river for training and events.

At our Blagdons site in Raynes Park, the school has a further 14-acres of playing fields to help support the sporting programme. From September 2023, we will have a full-size all weather pitch for hockey, with the ability to support other sports including tennis. We will have further tennis hard courts developed by September 2024 and the site will include excellent cricket nets and facilities for netball and other sports.

Sports tours

There is a regular programme of sports tours designed to extend and challenge our girls and boys, while also providing them with opportunities to broaden their experiences playing cultures and styles. In the next twelve months our senior pupils will tour Netherlands for netball and cricket and take part in a residential rowing camp in northern Italy. During the last academic year, our Lower School pupils enjoyed a netball tour of southern Wales and a cricket tour to the midlands.

Our sports programme

Our sporting programme can split into three different strands: performance, development and engagement. Further details can be found below, while a full list of fixtures can be found on our website.

Our aim is to provide a range of supplementary sports and activities which are delivered within the co-curricular clubs and games programme which help to support the athletic development of our pupils. Pupils in sports participate in inter-school competitions.

Athletics Cross Country Table Tennis Swimming

Water Polo Football (girls)

Our aim is to provide opportunities for our talented sports players to excel and to aspire representative honours where possible; for all pupils to have access to excellent coaching and facilities; to provide competitive inter-school fixtures which challenge our pupils, help them grow in their sport and help them to understand the importance and value of competitive sport.

Health and fitness, well-being and character development

Cricket Rowing

(boys & girls) (boys & girls)

Hockey Netball (girls) (girls)

Rugby Football (boys) (boys)

A range of additional sports which ensure all pupils participate in some sporting activity, learning the value of regular exercise for health, friendship and challenge.

Co-curricular clubs: Climbing, dance and tennis. Senior Games Programme: Includes over 20 activities, including co-ed yoga, squash, pilates, spinning, croquet and racketball.