Inscape House School, part of the Together Trust charity, hosted the annual LGBTQ+ History month event with lots of fun activities to encourage students to understand, identify, celebrate and promote inclusive communities in school. Inscape House School is a specialist school in Greater Manchester that breaks barriers to education for autistic children.
This year was a special year because we celebrated Alex Gould, Inscape House School alumn, who won the 2024 LGBTQ+ History Month Badge Design Competition. His design for the theme “Under The Scope” was the winning entry and current students got to watch an interview with Alex about his creative process.
Every year staff and students celebrate the school’s commitment to diversity with a school-wide event. Students had the creative freedom to set up and run their own initiatives. This year the celebration included a library stand, bookmark making workstation, sensory story corner, colouring table, match the flags game, cake station, pronoun stickers and temporary tattoos, spot the difference game, crack the code puzzles inspired by Alan Turing’s story.
Earlier in the day, some students attended a Q&A with the school governors to ask more about the policies and culture making Inscape House School an inclusive place. They prepared questions like: How are school policies supporting LGBT+ young people? Are there any queer people involved in decision making around issues that affect LGBT+ students or staff? How does the school ensure this extends to extracurricular activities? After answering their questions and an insightful discussion on the topic, it was the governors’ turn to ask questions. They were particularly interested in finding out if the students feel like the school is welcoming and inclusive and asked for feedback of things to improve. Students didn’t shy away, and gave honest answers to the governors.
Proud Together, the Inscape House School LGBTQ+ network for students was started as a staff and student-run group by Stéphane, Phase Leader, that empowers students to learn about issues affecting #LGBTQ+ people, identities, experiences and create a welcoming environment. Students meet regularly to talk about various topics and attend events like School Diversity Week, International Pronoun Day, and the school Pride Parade.