How are you empowering all learners today and preparing them to thrive tomorrow? Learning spaces and working environments are changing. As technology changes too, our students have increasing opportunities to succeed. Join Apple to explore these opportunities and the skills that employers are looking for, including creative problem-solving, analytical design thinking, and collaboration.

EduFringe sessions running from 11:15-11:45.

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With an introduction to networking and how to do it, join Common Ground for 30 minutes of fast-paced, informal networking with senior professionals from across the property and built environment sectors. A brilliant opportunity to make new connections, discover career pathways and practice your networking in a safe environment.

The Education Estates Strategy is a long-term strategy, backed by a 10-year plan to create schools and colleges that are safe, suitable, sustainable and sufficiently sized. This session will demonstrate how that plan is now being delivered through the strategy's three pillars: managing the estate, improving and renewing the estate, and building and rebuilding the estate.

Senior leaders from the Department for Education will explore progress across the strategy's three pillars: enabling Responsible Bodies to proactively and efficiently manage and maintain their estates; improving the condition and resilience of the estate through long-term strategic maintenance and renewal; and delivering high-quality building and rebuilding projects where they are needed. Delegates will gain a clearer understanding of what is live now, what is being delivered, and what the strategy means for them.

This session brings together two innovative approaches to delivering inclusive education through the design of specialist and mainstream school environments. Exploring Princes Primary SEN School in Liverpool and Fairwater Community Campus in Wales, speakers will share lessons on co-locating schools, integrating specialist provision, and creating flexible, accessible learning environments. The sessions will explore how various stakeholders can be brought together with successful design deriving from collaboration.

This session will explore how school landscapes can be designed to better support inclusion, wellbeing and equitable
educational experiences, including how outdoor spaces are used by girls. Speakers will examine how traditional approaches to school grounds can unintentionally exclude or marginalise some students and explore how outdoor spaces can support a wider range of activities, social interactions and learning experiences that ultimately benefit everyone who uses them.

This session explores how existing buildings can be reimagined to create inspiring learning environments while delivering wider social, economic and environmental value. Through two contrasting case studies — transforming part of a Grade I listed university building into future-ready computer laboratories and converting a vacant department store into a creative and digital education hub—the session will examine how heritage assets and redundant retail spaces can become catalysts for renewal.

A chaired discussion will then consider how education providers can unlock overlooked assets, reduce environmental impact and place learning at the heart of communities, town centres and regeneration strategies.

This session will explore how Education estates face increasing pressure to deliver more space, improve sustainability, and minimise disruption to teaching. It will explain how modular construction is helping education estates meet these challenges whilst creating high-quality environments for learners and staff. It will also explore how modular construction is supporting faster delivery, greater flexibility and more sustainable learning environments. And finally, how education providers can create better learning spaces whilst managing budget, time and sustainability pressures. It will be an open discussion on the opportunities, challenges and future of modular construction in education estates.

EduFringe sessions running from 13:15-13:45.

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Design Engineer Construct! (“DEC”) was born from Building Schools for the Future, connecting young people with the professionals designing and delivering their own schools. Seventeen years later, the challenge of building the future workforce remains just as urgent.

Free lunch provided to those registered under the Future Leaders Programme, provided by Arcadis

The session will bring together national and local perspectives on creating inclusive education estates. It will explain how inclusion is supported through the practical inclusive education estates and inclusion base guidance published earlier this year.

Examples from live and completed schemes will illustrate the use of High Needs Capital Funding, alongside affordable approaches that can improve accessibility and inclusion without major capital works.

Bringing the end-user perspective to the discussion, local authority speakers will reflect on what has worked in practice, and how collaboration can support better learning environments and improved experiences for pupils, staff, families and the wider school community.

Against the backdrop of the Education Estates Strategy launched earlier this year, Lindsay Harris will be talking about the School Estate Management Standards (SEMS) Return for the 2026–2027 academic year. The session will also consider the experiences of Academy Trusts on the SEMS Return process, as well as how it aligns with Estate Management at Trust level. There will also be consideration of how the SEMS Return will help set a baseline for future delivery of the strategy across the education estate, supporting the shift towards more proactive, data-led estate management and the longer-term ambition for an estate that is safe, suitable, sustainable and sufficiently sized.

The discussion will explore how stronger estate data and planning can help Responsible Bodies prioritise investment, improve resilience and condition, and make better use of their estates to support education and communities.

This session will feature presentations from the Department for Education Sustainability Award finalists:

• Offley Primary Academy, Sandbach
• Prospect House Specialist Support Primary School, Manchester
• The Levett School, Doncaster
• Trinity School, Belvedere, Bexley
• Queensmead Primary Academy, Leicester

Technology is now a routine part of how schools are designed, built and operated. Its role has evolved significantly over time, helping to improve connectivity, resilience and the information available to support better management of the education estate.

This session will look back on the evolution of technology across the education estate, from embedding technology in new school buildings, through programmes that have improved connectivity for schools across England, to the growing interest in how technology can support building performance, resilience and sustainability.

The session will share what schools have told us about the impact of connectivity and how their experiences are helping to shape future thinking about resilient digital infrastructure and technology-enabled schools. It will also explore emerging opportunities in areas such as smart sensors, environmental monitoring and energy optimisation, and how learning from these developments may help inform future approaches to the education estate.

EduFringe sessions running from 15:15-15:45.

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Join Construction for Women for an informal introduction to the Emerging Leaders programme and discover how it is supporting women during the first five years of their careers across construction and the wider built environment.

This session will feature presentations from the Education Estates® 2025 Project of the Year Winners

• Inclusive Design - Lisburne SEND School - AtkinsRéalis
• State School - Prestley Wood Academy - AtkinsRéalis
• Independent School - Lower School Library, Dulwich College - alma-nac
• Colleges - Industry Hub, Burnley College - Burnley College & ABW Architects
• International - River Grove Elementary School - Arcadis