Teaching regeneration at the Carpenters Estate

Yesterday, we welcomed a group of Geography teachers and fieldwork professionals to the Carpenters Estate in Stratford for a CPD session focused on urban regeneration, and it was exactly the kind of conversation we'd hoped for.

Organised in collaboration with Kate Stockings and supported by Duncan and Foysol from Populo Living, the session gave teachers a rare opportunity to hear directly from the team delivering the Masterplan, while also sharing their own experiences of bringing students to the estate.

The discussion ranged widely: from the complexity of the masterplanning process and the vision for the estate, to the reality of what teachers and young geographers encounter on the ground. One of the most valuable threads of discussion centred around ethics, and specifically what it means to bring students into a community that is still very much a home for people navigating change and uncertainty.

The discussion raised key questions: How do we frame regeneration for young people without flattening its complexity? How do we conduct responsible, and ethical, field work in existing communities?

It was great to hear teachers and field work professionals in the room speak candidly about their experiences of fieldwork at the estate across GCSE and A-Level, and the discussion surfaced something we take seriously: good teaching here requires not just solid resources, but a genuine sensitivity to resident experience and the contested nature of regeneration - best fostered through open discussion and collaboration.

Kate Stockings has been doing great work developing teaching materials for the Carpenters Estate, covering everything from the Focus E15 campaign and the long road to today's regeneration, to the current masterplan and its 'meanwhile' projects. Her blog is an invaluable starting point for any teacher approaching this topic, and we'd encourage you to explore it at katestockings.com.

At Populo Living, we're committed to building on this foundation. We want to support teachers across the country with resources that reflect the depth and complexity of what's happening here - but we want to get this right, and that means hearing from you.

If you teach Geography at KS4 or KS5 and cover the Carpenters Estate regeneration, we want to know what would be most useful. What resources are missing? What context would help? What would make fieldwork here more manageable, more meaningful, and more ethical for the students you bring?

Get in touch via email: communications@populoliving.co.uk.