A new SEND school in Stockport is providing a transformed education environment for vulnerable children, with architects AtkinsRéalis setting the bar high for inclusive education design that also embraces nature. Roseanne Field reports
On the site where a disused school once sat, closed in 2012 due to declining pupil numbers, now sits a modern replacement for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. It has been designed by AtkinsRéalis with inclusivity at its heart.
Lisburne School was designed and built exclusively for SEND pupils aged four to 11 and is situated on the site of the former Offerton High School, and adjacent to Castle Hill High School in Stockport, which is also a specialist provision. Lisburne School can accommodate over 200 pupils with complex needs such as autism, severe learning difficulties and physical disabilities.
The school is the result of a collaborative effort between Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) and multidisciplinary firm AtkinsRéalis, who have extensive experience in the education sector and were approached by the council to work on the concept.
The presence of the existing high school was the key factor for the site being chosen by the council for development, as well as the fact it borders the green belt. Combined these factors would mean the new school would benefit both from strong community links, as well as good proximity to nature – an important factor in the overall design. The overall aim for the project was to provide a SEND school which significantly raised the bar for inclusive design, in catering for the area’s most vulnerable children.
Initially, AtkinsRéalis were approached for feasibility and design up to RIBA Stage 3, before handing the contract over to Kier for delivery. Although the practice had worked on schools and education facilities many times previously, the opportunity to design this inclusive school was particularly enticing, as associate architect and project lead Lorenzo Mognini explains:
“Our strong education portfolio and experience as technical advisors for the Department of Education (DfE) made this project an attractive opportunity to apply inclusive design principles. Lisburne SEND School stands as a testament to collaboration – bringing educators, families, and designers together for a shared vision of inclusion.” The practice’s nearby Manchester office undertook the project delivery, while the Leeds office worked with the council as technical advisors.
With the school to serve local children and staff working in the school living within Stockport and the surrounding area, public consultations were held to give the community a voice and allow them to help shape the design. There’s a “strong sense of local identity,” says Mognini, which was “an important part of the project and really came through in the public consultations.” The practice also held workshops with SMBC and teachers who also all contributed to, and guided some of, the design decisions.
Integrated & inclusive
The whole of the brief was centred around designing a school that would set a new standard for specialist provision, while integrating seamlessly with its surroundings and combining full inclusivity and accessibility with aesthetics.
This meant not only making the most of the green belt-adjacent location, but also being sympathetic to the existing buildings – particularly the school, and houses in the surrounding area. “The brief focused on delivering a state-of-the-art SEND school that meets pupil requirements, integrates with its green surroundings, and provides inclusive, accessible spaces without compromising aesthetics,” explains Mognini. “It was key to ensure the school related to its surroundings, we needed to be sympathetic to that.”
While the objectives of the brief were clear from the outset, meeting them was not necessarily as straightforward. To minimise the impact of the school on the nearby residents, the height of the building was to be no higher than two storeys at any point which, says Mognini, was a challenge.
Other challenges encountered early on in the design process included the requirement to ensure all pupils would have level outdoor access, and managing the shared vehicular access with the adjacent high school. “Proximity to the green belt required sensitive material choices and landscape integration,” adds Mognini.
The designers made a virtue of this requirement, creating an external terrace on the first floor, providing pupils access to the outdoors without having to use the stairs to get to the ground floor. “There’s quite a lot of communication between the inside and outside of the building, and the landscape is part of the design of the building,” Mognini says.
This is an area where the AtkinsRéalis’ experience within the education sector proved fruitful as well. Work on previous projects “informed the approach,” explains Mognini, “particularly blending indoor and outdoor spaces and creating shared circulation areas.” Through their advisory work with the DfE and project experience, the practice had developed “extensive SEND design knowledge” which fed into the project, helping with the creation of features such as sensory rooms and physiotherapy spaces.
As clients, the council were heavily involved throughout the design and construction process, as were teachers with relevant expertise. They helped influence factors such as the layout, finishes and functional design details via design meetings held on a regular basis throughout the entire project. “It has been an ongoing conversation with those key stakeholders throughout the process, from stage zero to completion,” says Mognini.
External connections
In order to meet the overarching design objectives – to “create an inclusive, accessible and aesthetically pleasing SEND school that supports diverse learning needs,” Mognini explains – the design team focused closely on scale, materials choice, and layout. In the end the plan was split into “three distinct teaching and learning blocks,” with each catering to a specific age group. The blocks are independent from one another, but connected by external covered areas and terraces.
Block A houses admin areas on the ground floor, with a plant room and classrooms on the first floor. Blocks B and C have classrooms on both the ground and first floors, connected by shared communal spaces. However, Mognini says the main challenge for the architects “lay in designing the three distinct teaching blocks linked by an external first floor terrace for level outdoor access and covered ground floor areas for all-weather use.”
The team also had to negotiate the challenge of minimising the footprint of the building by designing it over two storeys rather than one, while ensuring those on the first floor would still have level access to the outside. The external terrace solved the problem of balancing reduced land take with ensuring access. “We try to reduce the footprint as much as we can which is why we opted for a two storey building instead of the more usual single storey form,” Mognini explains.
The practice wanted pupils to always have a connection to nature, whether utilising the outdoor spaces or inside the school buildings. In order to facilitate this, extensive glazing was included throughout to not only allow plenty of light in but offer pupils views outside too. The large windows maximise daylight and views of the surrounding hills and woodland. When the weather allows, learning can take place outside in one of the outdoor classrooms or garden spaces the design team included to, as Mognini explains, “integrate learning with nature.”
Outdoor beneficial facilities for SEND children include a sensory garden, classrooms, growing area, multi-use gaming area and a loop walk and running track. There is also a dedicated forest school area which includes dining spaces, covered play areas, habitat areas and seating.
Material choices played an important role in integrating the school with its surroundings, too. The structure itself comprises a steel frame, finished with red brick around the ground floor to “reflect local context,” namely the nearby residential buildings and Castle Hill High School.
The first floor exterior, up to the pitched roof – is finished with timber cladding, chosen to add further affinity with the nearby green belt. “It provides a more natural setting and identifies the school, along with the shape of the roof,” explains Mognini. “It’s become quite an identity for the school.”
The use of timber combined with the external terrace, outdoor classrooms and garden spaces all combine to give a strong connection with surrounding nature. “There’s a big interaction between the landscape and our buildings, and we have melded inside and outside,” Mognini says.
Internal access
The design minimises internal corridors, promotes open shared spaces and ensures a smooth transition between blocks via external links.
Where internal corridors were necessary, they were designed to double as shared teaching spaces “to reduce wasted circulation,” explains Mognini. “We try to maximise the use of space and the amount of reusable space, so not just have a corridor as a means of connecting the different areas.”
One such example can be found in both blocks B and C, where two classrooms merge together in a way that the ‘corridor’ becomes a shared space. “By making the corridor part of the classroom and part of the teaching space we managed to maximise the use of the areas we have without wasting space on circulation,” Mognini says.
While the open layout and nature of the school works well for its pupils and from a navigational and wayfinding point of view, it did also present some obstacles when it came to the more practical elements of learning environments. “Acoustics are quite a challenge due to the noise and reverberation generated in open classrooms like these,” admits Mognini.
Lighting and ventilation were also carefully considered, with both designed to meet DfE standards. Lighting in particular was tailored in certain areas within the school such as the specialist sensory rooms. The ‘light rooms’ in particular feature sensory lighting and interactive elements such as bubble walls, an LED wall wash which creates an even wash of light across the surface, a solar projector, bubble column, fibre optics, infinity tunnel, an interactive wall and sound system.
Other specialist rooms throughout the school include physiotherapy rooms, a multifunctional sensory room which incorporates body rollers, storage swing hooks, a large swing bolster and mats for therapeutic activities, a rebound therapy room which includes a trampoline, and a soft play room equipped with various elements for active exploration and play. There is also a dark therapy room that allows for relaxation and sensory exploration, as well as therapeutic interventions with equipment including a solar projector, UV carpet, and liquid
floor tiles.
Pupils also have access to a cookery room finished with accessible workstations so they can take part in hands-on cooking activities and a dance studio which features a 10 metre x 2.4 metre tall immersive wall and interactive floor. There are also CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) spaces, and a ‘zen den’ designed to help students who need a space to relax and self-regulate.
As well as setting the bar high in terms of the facilities on offer, the design was coordinated around achieving a BREEAM Very Good rating. This was achieved through various means, including electric heating and air source heat pumps. “The use of natural materials like timber also supported sustainability goals,” adds Mognini.
Celebrating success
Since completion of the school in December 2024, the school has received hugely positive feedback, with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s Luke Green calling it a “flagship school,” and headteacher Samantha Benson describing it as a “fully inclusive environment for our children to thrive in” that will “offer opportunities to raise the profile of SEND and support children across the wider Stockport community.”
The project was recognised at Education Estates 2025 where it was shortlisted for two awards: Project of the Year – State Schools (losing out to another AtkinsRéalis project), and Project of the Year – Inclusive Design, which it won. These award wins “validated the team’s commitment to SEND excellence,” Mognini says.
The school is also a finalist in the SEND Project of the Year category at the Education Property Awards 2026, to be held in February 2026. “It’s really important for us to win these awards and be recognised for our work in this area,” continues Mognini. He articulates how SEND requires a different level of focus on the part of design teams: “Designing for SEND requires real understanding of the particular requirements of both children and teaching staff at the school.”
The practice has also had “really positive feedback” from both the council and staff at the school since its opening, with the facilities, outdoor spaces and overall design quality all receiving high praise. However, while feedback from staff is important, Mognini says “the greatest reward is to see the pupils thriving in an inspiring and enabling learning environment.”