The 27-year-old Emwazi was identified as the masked figure seen in several videos of hostages being beheaded, which have been posted online by IS, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.
The picture from St Magdalene's Church of England School shows 10-year-old Emwazi in 1996 with the rest of his class.
In the yearbook the picture is from, he describes his desire to become a footballer and names shoot 'em up Duke Nukem: Time To Kill as his favourite computer game, The Sun newspaper reported.
An unnamed classmate told the newspaper that Emwazi, who reportedly came from a devout family, was the only Muslim in the class and would demonstrate Arabic writing to the class.
He went on to become a computer programmer before travelling to Syria in 2013 and joining IS later.
Advocacy group CAGE said on Thursday that the Kuwaiti-born Briton was "extremely kind" and "extremely gentle" but had been harassed by the UK security services.
Research director Asim Qureshi said Emwazi's family was "in utter shock" that the "beautiful young man" had joined the militant group.
But Prime Minister David Cameron has defended the security services, adding that Britain will do "everything we can" to bring terrorists to justice.
Speaking at an event in Wales, Mr Cameron said: "They are having to make incredibly difficult judgements, and I think basically they make very good judgements on our behalf," he said.
"I think while we are in the middle of this vast effort to make sure British citizens are safe, the most important thing is to get behind them."
A spokesman for relatives of Steven Sotloff, the US journalist beheaded in an Islamic State video, earlier said they have "full faith" that Emwazi will eventually face justice.
"There's going to be no closure until these people are brought to justice," Barak Barfi said.
"This is just one step in a long path. The Taliban were toppled in Afghanistan, al Qaeda was eradicated in Afghanistan, and we believe that one day, Islamic State's end will come."
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