Reimagining the education estate: Agnieszka Zielke’s key takeaways from Education Estates 2026

Making better use of existing buildings, strengthening climate resilience and embedding inclusion were among the key priorities identified by Agnieszka Zielke, Associate Director at McBains, following her visit to Education Estates 2026 in October. The two-day conference, exhibition and awards at Manchester Central, delivered in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE), explored the future of learning environments against the backdrop of the Education Estates Strategy and its decade of national renewal. For Agnieszka, a central takeaway was the growing emphasis on reimagining the estate already in place, alongside continued investment in new buildings where they are needed.

Retrofit and climate resilience move centre stage

Retrofit formed a central topic of debate. Sessions including the DfE’s Renewal and Retrofit Programme, Retrofitting Complex Education Estates and From RAAC to Renewal explored the challenge of buildings that need more than routine maintenance but do not necessarily require a full rebuild. Addressing defective post-war structural systems, including RAAC remediation and replacement of system-built fabric such as Laingspan, emerged as an ongoing risk-management priority rather than a one-off crisis response.

Decisions about what to retain, adapt, replace or rebuild need to weigh building condition, remaining service life and whole-life costs against the disruption associated with each intervention.

Low-carbon design and overheating were closely linked themes. Following another summer of extreme classroom temperatures, Agnieszka’s reflections frame climate resilience as an operational necessity, not simply a future ambition. Decarbonising heating, Passivhaus-informed approaches and practical overheating interventions featured alongside the wider ambition for net-zero-ready buildings.

Inclusion must extend beyond specialist spaces

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and inclusion were prominent throughout the conference, with a dedicated stage and a strong policy thread. Agnieszka noted a consistent emphasis on avoiding sensory overload in mainstream settings as well as specialist spaces. Sessions including Trauma Informed Design, Inclusive Estates: Policy to Delivery and peer reviews on designing for neurodivergence explored acoustic comfort, emotional regulation, trauma-informed layouts and neurodiversity-aware detailing.

A notable policy development discussed was the expansion of inclusion bases, the new term intended to replace SEN units, resourced provision and pupil support units. Government guidance and the Education Estates Strategy set out an ambition for a substantial expansion of these bases within mainstream education, with new School Rebuilding Programme projects now assessed for inclusion-base need. For Agnieszka, this reinforced the opportunity for creative reuse: many inclusion bases could be provided by adapting existing rooms and annexes rather than building anew.

A wider takeaway was that inclusion cannot stop at dedicated specialist accommodation. Relatively modest changes to acoustics, lighting, spatial arrangements and access to quieter spaces could also make a meaningful difference for pupils with SEND across the mainstream estate.

Start with educational outcomes, not space utilisation

Another key theme at the conference was the value of defining the intended outcome before deciding how buildings should support it. This approach echoed the second day’s opening keynote, which explored lessons from other public-sector estates and making projects investable through the outcomes they deliver.

Discussions on site intensification and co-location considered how education spaces could sit alongside technology, science and community uses. Sessions such as The Adaptive Campus and Fewer Pupils. More Complex Needs. Is the Estate Ready? explored these questions, alongside the role of skills, construction pipelines, innovation campuses and FE–industry clusters in supporting economic growth.

Attention was also drawn to the distinction between lightly used and genuinely vacant space. Utilisation analytics and surplus-capacity thinking, including EduFringe’s Hidden Capacity session, pointed towards opportunities for intensification and shared use. Truly vacant assets, by contrast, raised questions about disposal, community reuse or conversion.

Higher utilisation is not necessarily an end in itself. Growing demand for SEND provision, smaller teaching groups and specialist support spaces can mean that an apparently underused building still serves an important educational purpose.

Climate performance also needs to inform these decisions. Alongside condition, suitability and long-term adaptability, decarbonisation and overheating remain considerations in assessing whether to retain, adapt or release space.

Design environments that support engagement and wellbeing

The relationship between learning environments, wellbeing and participation was another significant thread, with discussions on how estates can respond to young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), alongside overlapping groups at risk of disengagement.

The Designing for EBSA session, addressing emotionally based school avoidance, explored specialist provision within a mainstream site, supported transitions and the benefits of repurposing an existing building. Related sessions on trauma-informed and sensory-aware design, alternative provision and landscape considered how settings could reduce sensory overload and support pupils recovering from disrupted educational experiences. Outdoor space was presented as infrastructure for emotional regulation, rather than simply leftover playground.

Taken together, these discussions suggested that inclusion by design is becoming a mainstream specification consideration. Acoustics, lighting, transitions, spaces to retreat from sensory overload and calm outdoor areas increasingly sit alongside roofs, heating plant and structural remediation in assessments of estate risk, suitability and long-term value.

The challenge is to translate these ambitions into practical, measurable requirements, recognising that different settings and pupil groups will need different responses.

A connected approach to the existing estate

The overarching takeaway from Education Estates 2026 is that existing buildings will play a defining role in the next decade of education investment.

Retrofit, climate resilience, inclusion bases and outcome-led reuse must work together as connected elements of a more strategic approach to educational buildings, rather than competing agendas.

The opportunity is to look beyond maintenance alone and consider how each adaptation could reduce risk, cut carbon, improve inclusion and unlock capacity. These objectives will not always align neatly, however, and funding and operational constraints will shape what can be achieved.

For Agnieszka, the central challenge is therefore not simply to design better buildings, but to help education providers make better-informed decisions about the buildings they already have, the spaces they need and where investment can deliver the greatest long-term benefit.