Immanuel Online School: How It All Started

Part 1: Weakness, Willingness and an Impossible Vision

Many of you have asked us to share the story of IOS — how it began, how it grew, and the journey we’ve been on so far. So here it is, told in four parts to start with.

We want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have encouraged us and prayed for us along the way. You’ll never fully know how much that meant — especially in those early years when we were finding our feet and learning (fast!) as we went.

What began in our first year with a single pilot Year 8 class and just a handful of students has now grown into a full programme covering every year group from Year 7 through to Year 11 (with IGCSEs in Years 10 and 11) — and multiple classes in each year. Demand has been so strong that some classes developed waiting lists, prompting us to increase capacity.

We’ve expanded from a tiny founding team to a team of 25 (and counting). Our students — particularly those on the NSW track — now join us from over 20 countries around the globe, with 80% of our live track learners based in the United Kingdom.

Today, we offer a range of learning tracks as well as open-access courses, all supported by a strong, well-established curriculum. Our students achieve excellent IGCSE results and, just as importantly, many flourish in ways that might never have been possible in a traditional setting.

Here’s our story!

Lockdown was an eye-opener. Virtually overnight, the entire world of education moved online. It wasn’t perfect - far from it. But for many students, particularly motivated secondary-aged learners, it worked. There were no classroom distractions, no wasted time, no drama or ideological confusion. Parents had a clearer picture of what was being taught. For the first time, it became undeniably obvious: online education was possible.

For Jonathan Marvin, the seed of an idea was planted - in that unexpected clarity. What if there was a Christian online school that combined academic excellence with spiritual formation? A place where faith wasn’t an add-on but the foundation?

The concept wasn’t entirely new - schools like King’s InterHigh were already established globally. In the US, several Christian online schools had been running for years. But in the UK and Europe, there was a noticeable gap. There was nothing distinctly Christian, thoroughly educational, and globally accessible.

Jonathan began to float the idea - quietly and cautiously. He did a little research and asked a few people. The response? Largely resistance. Understandably so. The idea felt too big and too different. Even Ruth, his wife, wasn’t on board - not out of cynicism but simply because it wasn’t on her radar. Homeschooling? Online school? It hadn’t even crossed her mind as something plausible, let alone practical.

Of all the people they had mentioned it to, including family, only one or two seemed even vaguely enthusiastic about the idea. Notably, David Chadwick, their pastor at the time, prayed with them, and they remembered him saying, “Why not – change the world!” It was a great encouragement.

Ruth was deep in the middle of building a business - a fast-growing computing platform for schools called TestandTrack.io. At that time, the platform had thousands of freemium users (schools) worldwide and several hundred paying members. Her goal was to expand it further alongside a few other digital projects. She also continued working part-time (Head of Computing) at the school where she had served for several years.

Jonathan, meanwhile, was still working in law and for a group of churches in the South East. He had previously changed track from private practice law - a decision already shaped by a sense of calling and prayerful discernment. He had also, in the first year of their marriage, taken a sabbatical to do a master’s in Theology and Biblical Studies at Spurgeon’s College.

Together, at the time, the couple had one daughter, Hannah, and had long been praying for another child.

But by December 2021, they had planned to lay that hope down - surrendering it to God.

And still, the idea for an online Christian school refused to go away.

With no clear plan, no funding, and no team, Jonathan put out the idea via a website in January 2022.

Then, in the same month, something unexpected happened: Ruth fell pregnant. An answer to Hannah’s prayers.

But what followed was brutal. As with her previous pregnancy, Ruth was hit with hyperemesis gravidarum - an extreme and debilitating form of morning sickness that left her bedridden for three months. This wasn’t “feeling a bit unwell” - this was vomiting up to 20 times a day, losing over two stone in weight, and being completely unable to function.

She had to be signed off from her job at her mainstream secondary school and her online businesses slowed almost to a halt. All teaching — including platforms like TestandTrack.io, TeachYourselfPython.com and TeachingComputing.com — came to a standstill.

It was, in her words, a time of complete helplessness.

And yet, this was when the vision for the online school — later to become IOS — truly began to take shape.

At this stage, the key thing to point out is that there was genuinely very little either of them could actually do. They had:

• No advertising

• No business plans

• No curriculum

• No teachers

• No students

• No learning portal

• No backers

• No clear idea how anything would work

Just a website.

…and prayer.

In truth, the story of IOS is one of God’s hand at work and the power of prayer.

Ruth, weary and worn out, prayed as best she could - of course there was doubt and anxiety - knowing that if anything were to happen, it would have to be nothing short of a miracle. Jonathan, quietly and persistently, prayed every morning, usually waking up at 5:30am to pray. No strategy. Just faith.

And somehow, in those three months of total weakness, something extraordinary happened.

Doors began to open. A number of significant miracles took place.

Among them was Steve Beegoo, the Head of Education at Christian Concern — he contacted Jonathan out of the blue after having found the website online. He gave him a key and prophetic verse:

2 Thessalonians 1:11:

"We constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith." (NIV)

He also introduced him to a few key people.

Connections were made. Teachers began to appear — not ones they sought out, but ones who came. They had to be not just teachers, but committed Christians. Conversations happened that seemed too perfectly timed to be coincidence.

Without effort, without structure, and with almost no input beyond prayer, the foundation of a school began to emerge.

Jonathan had hoped the school could launch in September 2022, having set up the website in January of that year. At the time, that felt laughably ambitious. There were too many unknowns, too many costs and too much risk — not least with a newborn baby on the way.

Stepping away from stable jobs, winding down successful business ventures, and pouring time into something that had no financial return in sight?

It sounded foolish. Irresponsible even.

And yet...

Read on for Part 2: Things were about to get really dramatic …!