Education Estates® 2026

This session explores how highly specialist educational and residential environments can be designed to support safety, wellbeing and positive outcomes for vulnerable young people, while balancing complex operational, safeguarding and therapeutic requirements.

This session explores how education estates can deliver safer, lower-carbon and more environmentally responsible buildings by rethinking both the materials used and the way their wider impacts are evaluated. Through research-led guidance on timber-framed schools and case studies of high-performance construction projects, speakers will examine how sustainability, fire safety, embodied carbon and material sourcing can be addressed together rather than in isolation. 

Alternative Provision is not known for attractive buildings, but now serves a record number of pupils and is earmarked for significant investment. Led by an inspirational headteacher and including the pupil voice, this presentation explains the goals of Alternative Provision, explains how the brief for this new site evolved and how the design team created a fresh approach to building layout and detailing. For those writing a brief for, or designing, an Alternative Provision environment, this talk provides background theory, lessons learnt, and practical and original tips for an aspirational approach that goes above and beyond the baseline.

Bringing together perspectives from schools, FE colleges and design professionals, speakers will examine how policy, capital investment and estate strategy are shaping more adaptable, neurodiversity-affirming learning environments. Through case studies including specialist SEND provision, inclusive FE campuses and sensory-informed design approaches, the session will highlight how buildings, landscapes and operational planning can work together to improve wellbeing, independence and learner outcomes.

This session will feature insights into how CF25 technical objectives can be translated into deliverable design solutions and lessons learned from real CF21 projects that directly inform CF25 decision-making.

2026 marks 10 years since “The Spark” first opened at Southampton Solent University (SSU).This New Teaching Building, was the start of a major campus redevelopment. The project significantly enhanced the academic profile and reputation of the University and the student and staff experience. It also radically transformed the outward appearance of the campus and reconnected the University to the surrounding area. Important opportunities for business and community engagement were created. In addition, the aspiration was to significantly reduce operational costs and carbon emissions at the University. This presentation covers the detailed POE exercise carried out this year.

This session explores how schools and education estates can move from climate adaptation strategies to practical, on-the-ground implementation, ensuring learning environments remain safe, resilient and operational in the face of increasing climate risks such as overheating, flooding and water scarcity.

This session explores how colleges can combine digital innovation with sustainable refurbishment to extend the life and performance of existing estate assets. Using a live case study from Barnsley College, speakers will examine the process of identifying opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT) technology within a historic 1930s building located in a conservation area.

Using live school case studies including Woodham Academy and Dunfermline Learning Campus, speakers will demonstrate how digital twin platforms can integrate operational, asset and performance data to provide facilities and estates teams with real-time insight into building performance.

Emotionally‑Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is a rapidly growing challenge, prompting the development of the facilities at Prince William School. This session shares the project’s journey—from the initial need and design principles to the operational realities of placing specialist provision within a mainstream site. The speakers will present insights from students, staff, and the trust, highlighting the benefits of supported transitions, community integration, and repurposing an existing building. The session offers practical lessons for design teams and clients seeking to create effective, inclusive environments that improve engagement and outcomes for EBSA learners.

How much can we learn by auditing each other’s buildings—and inviting critique of our own? Focusing on inclusive design for disability and neurodiversity, we will review a number of our counterpart's projects including education and healthcare. Using the principles of inclusive design, we will test how our buildings perform in practice and in detail. Through peer visits, user workshops and post-occupancy evaluation, we will reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how we can continue learning to design more inclusively.

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

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

This session explores a five‑site pilot using offsite‑manufactured Energy Pods to replace traditional school plant rooms with end of life boilers. The session shares lessons from real installations, including time savings, practical challenges, and integration with existing systems. Attendees will gain insight into how modular, factory‑built plant rooms can support faster, safer, and more efficient upgrades across school estates.

This session explores how school rebuilding and retrofit projects can successfully deliver sustainable, future-ready learning environments while operating within the constraints of live education settings, ageing estates and complex heritage contexts. Through case studies including St Mary Magdalene & St Stephen’s CE Primary School, speakers will demonstrate how major estate challenges, including RAAC remediation, can become opportunities for long-term transformation. 

Healthy learning environments directly influence educational outcomes. As part of the Great British Energy Solar Partnership programme, 32 schools are participating in what's believed to be the largest DfE indoor air quality monitoring trial across the UK education estate. Continuous monitoring of CO₂, temperature, humidity and occupancy is revealing how classrooms truly perform. With over 90 percent of monitored rooms regularly exceeding 1500ppm CO₂, the implications are significant. This session explores what this means for pupil performance, operational efficiency and national reform, showing how structured environmental data strengthens governance, informs investment and supports a more performance-led education estate.

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 ambitious sustainability goals can reshape the way education buildings are designed, delivered and experienced, challenging the reliance on complex mechanical systems and demonstrating the potential of low-energy, Passivhaus-informed approaches at scale. Drawing on research-led thinking and large-scale delivery experience, including the NowtHaus research study and the University of Manchester’s landmark Fallowfield Passivhaus student residential development, speakers will examine how intelligent architectural design, thermal comfort modelling and performance-led decision-making can reduce operational energy demand while improving occupant wellbeing and building resilience.  

As more education estates approach the end of their Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts, organisations are increasingly focused on ensuring successful handback outcomes and protecting long-term value. This session brings together legal, operational and real-world perspectives on managing PFI expiry, drawing on both strategic contract management expertise and practical experience. 

This session explores how existing and historic buildings can be reimagined to create future-ready learning environments that support academic excellence and wider civic renewal, as well as respecting heritage. Through case studies including the University of Greenwich’s refurbishment of Grade I listed spaces within King William Court and the transformation of a vacant former department store in Margate into a Creative and Digital Technology Centre, speakers will demonstrate how challenging or constrained buildings can become catalysts for innovation.

This session explores how the Department for Education’s Education Estates Strategy is reshaping expectations for estate management across schools and trusts, moving organisations from a culture of “should do” to one of clear operational and governance accountability. Speakers will examine how new requirements translate into practical responsibilities for Trust Boards, executive leaders and estates professionals.  

Regulation Before Education: Why the School Landscape Matters Claire Hunt, oobe, Regional Director, ...

Drawing on case studies from higher education and specialist research facilities, speakers will examine the practical realities of working within constrained and occupied environments, balancing decarbonisation ambitions with cost, compliance and technical challenges. The session will highlight approaches to feasibility testing, infrastructure planning, embodied carbon reduction and phased delivery, demonstrating how targeted interventions can extend asset life, improve performance and futureproof ageing estates while minimising disruption and environmental impact.

"It takes a village" - Delivering a new model for SEND provision Alice Parker, Ridge, Fiona Piercy M ...

This session explores how artificial intelligence, digital technologies and data-driven approaches are transforming both the management and delivery of education estates. Attendees will gain practical insights into how intelligent technologies can support more efficient operations, better-performing buildings and greater confidence in estate investment and delivery.

As the sector moves towards greater standardisation and data-driven decision-making, speakers will examine how organisations can build stronger estate intelligence, improve governance and align local priorities with national expectations. Through live case studies from both school trusts and higher education institutions, the session will demonstrate how complex estate data can be made more accessible, enabling stakeholders to make more informed decisions about investment, sustainability, space utilisation and long-term strategic planning.

Speakers in this session will examine the practical implications of emerging policy, capital investment and estate planning, alongside the growing role of trauma-informed and neurodiversity-aware design in promoting wellbeing, safety and belonging. Through policy insight and design-led case studies, the session will consider how inclusion bases, sensory-informed spaces and wider estate improvements can be integrated within mainstream settings to support equitable outcomes for all learners.