Hello and a very warm welcome to the first edition of our newly formatted Education Newsletter! We know it’s already been a busy start to the academic year, and we’re excited to reconnect and keep you updated monthly moving forward. This refreshed newsletter will now feature three recurring sections to help you stay informed and organised:
– For Action – Key tasks and deadlines to support your careers provision.
– For Info – Updates, resources, and insights to keep you in the loop.
– Upcoming Dates – Events and opportunities to add to your calendar.
Our aim is to make this newsletter a useful, time-saving tool that supports your work and helps you stay ahead of what’s coming up. If there’s anything you’d like to see included in future editions, we’d love to hear from you. Thank you for all you do to inspire and guide your students – we’re looking forward to working more closely with you this year.
For Action
Autumn Term Compass Evaluations
The new compass evaluation questions will be live in Compass and Compass+ after October half term. As we head into adopting the updated Gatsby Benchmarks our team will be supporting all autumn term compass completions.
If you have not already booked your compass evaluation support meeting for November/December please get in touch with your Careers Consultant asap. For (Central Bedfordshire & Bedford Borough mainstream schools please email careershub@southmidlaands.org.uk)
Updated Compass Questions
- Read the updated compass questions
- Ensure your leaderships team and governors are aware that autumn term compass evaluations will be a recalibration of data and that compass scores are expected to drop. Meeting the updated benchmarks will take strategic planning, a whole school approach and time – especially for benchmarks 5, 6 & 7 where there is now specific guidance for each benchmark defining meaningful. A copy of the letter we have sent to head teachers is available HERE
Share our new What Next & Send Guides
Please share our new Year 11 What Next in the South Midlands and Send post 16 options guides with students, staff and teachers. Links are available in the information section below
- Add them to your website
- Send a parent group call
- Add to the next school newsletter
- Add to next staff update
- Ask pastoral team to add to tutor notices
- Incorporate into existing PHSE lessons and post 16 transition plans
Upcoming Dates
Our first online CPD session this academic year is focusing on how to use inset days to drive careers. Careers Consultants Mandy Browning and Louise Lynch along with Nadia Mahmood, Careers & Opportunities Lead at Watling Academy will be sharing details of an inset session they created and delivered to teachers this September, focusing on the updates to Gatsby benchmark 4, that now require young people in every year and every subject to learn how the skills and knowledge developed in their subject helps them to gain entry to and be more effective workers within a wide range of careers.
| 14/10/25 | How to use INSET days to drive careers |
| 15/10/25 | Career Leader Training, local cohort workshop 1 |
| 16/10/25 | Career Leader Training, local cohort workshop 2 |
| 21/10/25 | West Northants Careers Leader Network Meeting |
| 21/10/25 | Inclusion Community of Practice |
| 23/10/25 | North Northants Careers Leader Network Meeting |
| 23/10/25 | MK Careers Leader Network Meeting |
| 03/11/25 | Supported Compass evaluations begin |
| 04/11/25 | Careers Hub Induction |
| 11/11/25 | Career Leader Training, local cohort workshop 3 |
| 13/11/25 | How to create a strategic careers plan |
For Information
Updated Compass Questions
As may of you will already be aware in response to the updated Gatsby Benchmarks and statutory guidance. Three new Compass evaluations will be available on Compass+ and Compass from the 03/11/25 November 2025 . You can view the updated questions and accompanying guidance for special settings, schools and FE & ITPs HERE
South Midlands Parent & Carer Survey 2025
South Midlands Careers Hub commissioned a survey to be conducted by Amazing
Apprenticeships of parents and carers with secondary school-aged children, regarding
their confidence, interest and awareness of post-16 and post-18 options. The survey
generated 5,978 responses from across 53 schools.
Summary of recommendations
- Support schools to consider and implement ways to increase parental awareness and understanding of the school’s careers programme, the support available, and how to access it.
- Increase parent/carer access to local labour market information and build understanding of the skills and competencies being sought at a local level, by providing opportunities for parents/carers to interact with employers/providers.
- Identifying proven approaches and curating quality resources to support schools to embed best practice and enhance the role of families in careers education.
Read the full report HERE
Autumn Conference
Presentations, accompanying resources and delegate list available HERE
New Resource – Year 11 What Next in the South Midlands
We’re excited to launch the first edition of the Year 11 What Next Guide – a comprehensive resource created in collaboration with Resourceful Careers to support young people, parents/carers/families, and educators across Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes, and Northamptonshire.
Explore the guide HERE
New Resource for Parents & Carers of SEND Students: Understanding Post-16 Options
We’re proud to launch the South Midlands Parents’ Guide to Post-16 Options – a supportive, easy-to-follow resource created especially for families of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
View the guide HERE
National CPD opportunities
- Modern Work Experience: Let’s Make it Work – 21/11/2025, 10:15 am
- In this national online broadcast on work experience, you will hear from senior leaders across business, education, and local government share their vision for embedding modern work experience that inspires action, builds advocacy, and drives change.
- Chaired by Olly Newton, Executive Director of the Edge Foundation, our expert panel will share experiences and explore system-level challenges for ensuring all young people have access to high-quality workplace experiences throughout their education, supported by nationally integrated and locally tailored careers support.
- By tuning into the broadcast, attendees can:
- Gain insight into senior leader strategic thinking on how best to harness collective effort to stimulate modern work experience opportunities across all sectors of our economy.
- Develop a greater understanding of how equity of opportunities for young people will benefit business, education and local communities and the vital role we all play in making this a reality.
- Be part of system change in transforming employer-led careers education, leading to a more informed, skilled future workforce.
- The Careers & Enterprise Academy is the online home of careers leadership for Careers Leaders and all those who work with them to plan and deliver strategic, progressive careers programmes. New courses include understanding the updates to the Gatsby Benchmarks, tailored content for those working in primary settings, and working with Alumni.
- Using Compass+ effectively to support vulnerable groups
- Thursday 16th October 2025, 3.30pm – 4.30pm
- Deep dive into Compass+ and learn how different features can help you to support a range of vulnerable groups.
- – Learn more about key features of Compass+ and how to use them effectively in your setting
- – Understand how learners responses to the Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) can contribute towards supporting vulnerable groups
- – Find out about ongoing product developments to Compass+ and how they benefit users that support vulnerable groups
- – Know where to access further support and guidance.
- Keen to explore Compass+ now? Take a look at our supporting resources before the webinar:
- Future Skills Questionnaire for learners with SEND – PAL in SEND settings
- Compass+ webinar recordings have moved to YouTube. You can find all of our previous webinar recordings, including Compass+ Bitesize, on our Compass+ Training webinars playlist 25/26.
- Alternatively, just click the links below to view a webinar recording.
- Supercharge careers with Compass+
- The Future Skills Questionnaire – 5 steps to success.
- Using Compass+ effectively to support Careers Impact Internal leadership reviews
- Compass+ data and Reporting
- Using Compass+ to support compliance with the updated statutory guidance for Careers
- Using Compass+ and Unifrog together effectively
View and download transcript for Using Compass+ and Unifrog together effectively