Happy 20th Birthday Inscape!

On Sunday 6th October Inscape House opened its doors to former pupils and staff to celebrate the school’s 20th anniversary. This had been preceded on Friday by the grand opening of its newly built extension. The outcome was a lot of laughter, catching up with old friends and plenty of cake! It seems apt after a weekend of celebration to look a bit more closely at the last 20 years of the school. It has been an interesting one!

Inscape Birthday Cake 

From as early as 1990 the Boys’ and Girls’ Welfare Society (as we were then known) identified a need for specialised day provision in South Manchester for children with language and social communication difficulties. Talks with Stockport Local Education Authority were forthcoming and resulted in four children being placed within a classroom of Bethesda School at Cheadle in September 1991. Four turned into nine and it was soon realised that an independent school was needed. The result was Inscape School which opened within the charity’s Crossley Gaddum building in Easter 1993.

Crossley Gaddum

From here the school began to develop, receiving accreditation from the National Autistic Society in 1997. A decision was then made to extend the service with the creation of a new school run in partnership with Salford LEA. In 2001, after various location changes, it finally settled in its permanent home in Walkden, Worsley.

Inscape Salford, Stott Lane, Swinton

Further development occurred in April 1999 when work began to provide assessment, training and consultancy for families and professionals who live and work with people with an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). INCA was officially opened by Jane Asher in 2000. 

INCA Plaque

The last branch to Inscape House (The Russell Centre) consisted of post 16 provision and opened in Withington in September 2005. After 7 years it became the first service to move across to Cheadle to join Inscape school as part of a vision to see the whole service merged onto one site.

Today sees all Inscape provision at Cheadle celebrating twenty years. Here’s to the next twenty!