Emmanuel Schools Foundation

ESF provides centres of academic excellence where staff and students alike have the opportunity to realise their full potential.The vision for Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) came originally from Sir Peter Vardy, John Burn OBE, Michael (now Lord) Bates, and a small number of other pioneers. They were inspired to use a government initiative in the late 1980s to found new schools with a Christian ethos in the most disadvantaged areas in the North of England by drawing on the expertise of successful business leaders. They saw an opportunity to build schools where the pursuit of academic excellence would go hand in hand with the development of character. The achievements of students in the schools of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation – and the reputation that ESF alumni would go on to acquire – has since born out their conviction that these two goals are inextricably linked.