Emmanuel School Walsall

On Monday, the Birmingham City Mission returned to our school to give another assembly for our Secondary pupils. We are always so pleased to welcome them as they deliver such important and biblical messages to the students.

On Monday, our Nursery to Year three pupils had an online safety session. This is an increasingly important area in today's society and it was great to see some of our parents who came along to listen as well.

As part of their Stone Age to Iron Age Topic in History this half-term, our pupils in Years 4-6 went to Walsall Leather Museum last week.

They all enjoyed making a clay Stone Age necklace as well as handling some artefacts discovered within the Walsall area which really helped in making the history come alive for them.

On Monday, two of our parents came into school to deliver a 'Mini Medics' session for our Nursery to Year 3 pupils. In this session, they learnt about the important role of a First Aider through songs which included the number to contact in an emergency. They also practiced CPR on their favourite teddies and learnt how to place each other into the recovery position.

We are so grateful to our parents for giving up their time to teach our young pupils this crucial and lifesaving information.

As part of Fairtrade Fortnight, our GCSE Food and Nutrition students baked a wide variety of cakes and biscuits for our bake sale we hosted to raise money for Tearfund.

Mr Swain's weekly devotional:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

If you have a spare two minutes, I would encourage you to pause at this point and consider how evident these fruit are in your life. What I suggest is that you divide the list into three categories: green, for the ones that you feel you do reasonably well; orange for the ones where you know you struggle at times; red for the ones that you know are a significant ongoing problem. When you have done that, please read on.

Not an easy task is it? I had several struggles when I did this. For example, in some of them, I feel that I do OK in certain circumstances eg I can be patient in some areas of life but then there are other areas where I know my patience is really poor. I ended up with no green areas where I felt that I have really got this sorted and then a mixture of orange and red! But I want to leave you with a challenge and then an encouragement..

Let's start with the challenge. As an English teacher, it is very interesting to observe that the sentence is "The fruit of the Spirit is" rather than "The fruits of the Spirit are..." It is one fruit in many guises rather than lots of different fruits. This then means that unless we are green in every category, the whole fruit is not perfect. and sadly, we know that to be true, don't we? Many famous people are brought down and humbled because of faults in one area of their life, even if the majority of the other areas are seemingly OK. Even on a personal level, we can all be guilty of judging a person by one part of their lives and labelling them by their weakness in that area eg he seems a decent bloke but has got a short-temper and loses control easily or she's nice enough if you are on the right side of her but she can be very unkind if you upset her etc. As Christians, we are representatives of Christ on earth and Matthew 7 v 15 to 20 is very clear that it is our fruit that helps people recognise what we are really like and who we really belong to. That's a great challenge.

But before we feel totally inadequate and ready to give up, let's move quickly on to the encouragement. This list of nine qualities is not about our fruit. It does not say the fruit of Mr Swain should be love, joy, peace etc. The fruit is that of the Holy Spirit. And it is not an aspirational aim, it is stated as a certainty because it is describing his character. The fruit of the Spirit IS love, joy, peace etc. We are not trying to achieve green lights in all 9 areas in our own strength. Indeed, all we need to do is let the Holy Spirit within us take charge, stop our human nature fighting against Him and hand over the controls to Him. Sounds easy but whilst it is a simple thing to understand, we know it is harder to do. So, let's pray for ourselves and for one another, that we allow God's Spirit to work within us so that we can increasingly display the fruit of the Spirit - in all its different forms - in our lives for His glory.

Emmanuel School accepts private candidates for some GCSE and A level courses. If you know any parents who home educate their children or if you know anyone who wants to re-sit any exams, and they need an exam centre, please ask them to email [email protected] for a private candidate information document and registration form.

Comment from a previous parent of a private candidate:

"Our experience of our son sitting his GCSE examinations as a private candidate at Emmanuel was extremely positive. All the administration around the process was excellent and professional. Staff and pupils were very welcoming, and the school provided a calming environment for sitting the exams."

On Thursday 26th September, four of our junior pupils took part in the A*Stars Sheriff training that had been organised by Walsall Council. A*Stars is the Active Sustainable Travel And Road Safety (A*STARS) programme that was developed in Walsall in 2009 to help reduce congestion around school gates, provide opportunities for road safety training and education and to help keep Walsall children and their families safer and healthier. The Sheriffs were trained in how to promote A*Stars around the school and how to encourage participation in the events.

Mr Swain's weekly devotional:

Our Memory passage for this half term is Galatians 5 v 22 to 26, a passage that starts with a list of the 'fruit of the spirit.' However, the very first word is "but." In this context the word is used to introduce a contrast to what has gone before. Galatians 5 v 19 to 21 lists the acts of the sinful nature. It is a grim read but we only need to follow the news for one day to see how much evidence of this list there is in the world around us. Perhaps even more frightening is the fact that the list sails pretty close to home and we can recognise many of the qualities listed in ourselves such as "Jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition ..." etc. Therefore, we should rejoice in this small word, "but." It indicates that there is an alternative way to live. It is not done in our own strength but through the Spirit at work within us. As Christians, if we let the Spirit take control of our lives, then they will look different from the world around us. They can shine light in the darkness and point people to the source of that light. Our Memory Passage is only 5 verses long, yet even if it was just the first "but" if we really grasped how wonderful and important this contrast is, it should bring joy and thankfulness to our hearts.

If you are interested in a place for your child in our senior school, whether that's this academic year or if you are looking ahead towards upcoming years, we would love to welcome you to Emmanuel School on Friday 27th September at 3:30pm to meet with our Headteacher and other parents where we can share more about our secondary department and answer any questions you may have.

If you have any questions or would like to let us know you are coming, please email [email protected]. We hope to see you there.

In order to tie-in with Fairtrade Fortnight and learning about farming and hedgerows, our Years 1-6 pupils went on a trip to Forge Mill Farm. It was a great day out and a fantastic opportunity for the children to get up close with some farm animals and learn about where our food comes from.

Yesterday, our Year 10 and 11 GCSE Food and Nutrition group started their cookery course by making a chilled lemon flan.

We are still accepting applications for this academic year!

Emmanuel School exists to bring glory to God by working with parents, along with the support of their local churches, to enable children to reach their God-given potential. We provide Christian education to pupils aged 3 to 16.

If you or someone you know are interested in Christian education and what to know more about our school, please visit our website https://www.emmanuel-walsall.co.uk/home or do not hesitate to contact us via email [email protected]

Mr Swain's weekly devotional:

I wanted to start this year by sharing some of the verses that we have looked at as teachers in our training sessions last week. We began the week by looking at Psalm 62. David is having to talk to himself, to put his feelings aside and remind himself of the unshakeable truth that God is his rock, his fortress, his salvation. Twice he deviates to show us what the people of the world put their trust in: from verse 3 to 4 we see those who put their trust in power and in verse 9 and 10 there are those who put their trust in riches. Three thousand years later and both of these are still happening but they cannot ultimately satisfy or be relied on. Our hope comes in "God alone."

Scholars debate the correct translation of this Psalm but it does appear that it shows David gaining in confidence as he puts his trust in God. The correct translation in v2 should be "I will not be shaken greatly." Like David, we can know the truth of God as our rock but sometimes we can still feel thrown by all that life bombards us with. By the end of verse 6, he is strong enough in God to say, "I will not be shaken" and this leads to him in verse 8 being able to share this confidence with others, God is our refuge. Then by the end of verse 11, he addresses God directly as he puts all that he has learnt and reminded himself about, into practice. "You God are strong, and you, O Lord, are loving."

Whatever this year may bring, what a comfort to know that our God is powerful and loving. As verse 5 says, we will only find true rest from the anxieties of this world when our trust is in him. I pray that for us individually and corporately, we will know Jesus as our rock in the academic year ahead.

Last Friday, our secondary pupils had a First Aid Enrichment Day. They learnt life saving information such as how to use the recovery position, CPR and AEDs and covered other topics such as choking, burns, scalds and other common injuries. Thank you to Sophie who came into school and gave our pupils an enjoyable and informative day.

This morning we welcomed back all our pupils for their first day of the academic year.

It is always a great pleasure to see our families and students return and a delight to welcome new staff, pupils and families into our school family for the first time. We pray they settle in quickly and feel at home with us.

Our students have had a busy first day getting back into the school routine and listening to important safeguarding talks.

This morning, our staff came back to school for the first training day of the 2024/2025 academic year before the pupils return later this week. These next few days are always a great chance for us to get together to pray for our pupils and the year ahead, as well as undergoing important training. We are all pleased to be back and can't wait to begin the new school year.