How the school began
Emmanuel started with a prayer meeting in November 2001. A group of Leicester parents wanted their children educated somewhere Christian faith was not something added on at the end of the day, and they had no idea whether it was possible.
They met to pray and to seek God's will. A public meeting followed in January 2002, and from it came a steering committee under the name of the Leicester and Leicestershire Christian School Project. They met regularly, held further public meetings, visited other schools, and found people who could help them. Families began committing themselves and their children to a school that did not yet exist.
Then they needed somewhere to be. In May 2003, after much discussion and prayer, the committee accepted an invitation from Braunstone Evangelical Free Church to use their premises on Didsbury Street.
The school opened on 28 August 2003 with eleven pupils of primary school age.
Growing
| 2001 | The first prayer meeting |
| 2003 | The school opens with eleven primary-aged pupils |
| 2005 | A secondary phase begins, for Years 7, 8 and 9 |
| 2013 | Key Stage 4 begins, with four pupils taking eight GCSEs |
| 2015 | That first cohort sits their examinations. Every one of them gains five grades A* to C, including English and mathematics. |
| 2018 | Judged good at inspection |
| 2025 | Approval to increase our capacity to 75 pupils |
Along the way the school became a registered examination centre, which is why we are now able to take private candidates as well as our own pupils, and moved from Ofsted to the Independent Schools Inspectorate.
Pupils who left us have gone on to colleges, universities and into work.
Twenty-odd years on
The school has never moved. From the first day it has met in Braunstone Evangelical Free Church on Didsbury Street, and that partnership has lasted the whole of its life. Our pupils are taught in a building that belongs to a congregation at the weekend and to children during the week — which is a fair picture of how the school itself works.
From eleven pupils it has grown to seven classes taking children from Reception through to Year 11.
It has never been an easy thing to run, and there have been years when the way forward was not obvious. Each time, God has provided through His people. We do not take that for granted.
The Leicestershire Christian Education Trust was formed in 2024, and is now the proprietor body of the school.
The building
During term time and through the school day, the whole site is ours. We have sole use of it. The church uses the hall and kitchen in the evenings for its own meetings and services, once the children have gone home.
Most classes are taught in our own classrooms in the portakabins on the site. These belong to the school alone and are set up as classrooms and left as classrooms — nothing is packed away each afternoon. Two further classrooms are in the main building.
The hall and kitchen we share with the congregation across the week, but during school hours they function as any school hall and kitchen does.
PE and games take place on the artificial grass area behind the school. For sports day, and anything else needing more room, we use Braunstone Park.
Our vision
Three things in a deliberate order.
Growing in Christ
We want children to know Christ, not merely to know about him. We cannot manufacture that and we do not pretend to. What we can do is teach the Bible faithfully, pray honestly, and let children see adults who are still growing themselves.
Thriving in Learning
A Christian school that teaches badly has failed at being Christian. Excellent teaching is not in tension with faith; it is an expression of taking God’s world seriously. We expect hard work, and we expect pupils to leave able to do things they could not do when they arrived.
Shaping the Future
Children do not stay children. We are preparing people who will work, vote, raise families and make decisions in a world that will not share all their convictions. They need to be able to hold their beliefs thoughtfully and live alongside people who disagree with them.
The school today
- Pupils aged four to sixteen, taught in seven mixed-age classes.
- Capacity for seventy-five pupils. We are small on purpose and intend to stay small.
- Thirteen members of staff, most of whom teach across several classes.
- An independent school, inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.
- Part of the Leicestershire Christian Education Trust, a registered charity.
- Members of the Independent Schools Association and the Association of Christian Schools International.
Who comes here
Most of our families are Christian, but not all of them are, and a family does not have to share our faith to belong here. What we ask is that you are content for your child to be taught within a Christian framework, because it runs through everything and cannot be opted out of.
If you are weighing that up, come and see it. It is much easier to judge in a classroom than on a website.
Come and look round
Visits happen on ordinary working days with the Head Teacher and take about an hour.
