We hope you have had a good start to the year. We welcome Sam Baker, who has joined us as Operational Hub Lead and Lorraine Emmerton who joins us on 02/02 as our Bedfordshire Careers Consultant. Find out more about them in the term 2 kick off slide deck.
Huge shout out to everyone that took part in Peer to Peer reviews last week! Great collaboration by the 11 schools and special schools that took part – Abbeyfield School, Academy of Central Bedfordshire, Challney High School for Girls, Isebrook School, Lord Grey, Maplefields Academy, Sandy Secondary School, Sir Herbert Leon, The Duston School, The Gateway School and Wrenn School.
'Really enjoyed today and myself and James got loads out of it. Lots of thought provoking conversation and lots of ideas moving forward.' Paul Lamb, Maplefields Academy
'A brilliant day looking at the strategic priorities for our provision and alignment with broader school development priorities.' Shana Iqbal, Challney High School for Girls'
'The peer-to-peer review was extremely valuable and provided an excellent opportunity for collaborative reflection and professional learning. We began by sharing the context of our schools, including our careers priorities, leadership structures, and the time and resources invested into our provision. This opened up a productive discussion around institutional aims, strengths, and the challenges we each face in delivering high‑quality careers education.
Hearing about Duston School’s approach allowed us to compare practice, celebrate areas of success, and identify meaningful points for development. Together, we agreed one clear strength and three achievable development areas, giving us a focused plan for continuous improvement.
Overall, the review was constructive, supportive, and highly beneficial to both me as a careers leader and our SLT. It reinforced the importance of collaboration across schools and highlighted shared commitments to raising the standard of careers provision for all students. Thank you again for facilitating such a purposeful professional exchange' Carla Dufty, Abbeyfield School
Thanks to those of you that joined us for our spring term kick off and Benchmark 2 & LMI CPD session. Slides available to download below, recording of spring term kick off HERE and BM2 & LMI recording HERE
We are now really close to over half of our schools completing their internal leadership review. 48% of schools and colleges across the region have already completed theirs – have you? The Internal Leadership Review, available on Compass and Compass+ looks inward at leadership, governance, and strategic impact – how careers education is embedded in the school/college culture and leadership priorities.
If you have completed your ILR, or are planning to and would like to book in for a Peer to Peer review – see available dates below!
RONI feature coming soon – launching soon – new Risk of NEET Indicator (RONI) it has been designed to better support early identification of young people from Years 7 to 11 who may be at risk of disengaging from learning and ultimately becoming NEET The feature isn’t live in Compass+ yet but you can still read the guidance below for reference, we also encourage you to review your data-processing arrangements to ensure you are ready to access the feature.
• Learn about the different apprenticeship programs/offer within Morgan Sindall Group
• Gain an insight from current apprentices and T level Students
• Get Hints and Tips from our HR Partner
Opportunity to join the 4YP careers team for an hour of discussion, reflection, networking and information as we gather online to improve our shared knowledge and our practice. Wednesday 11th February at 3.30pm. 💡 This term’s topic: Exploring career guidance strategies for supporting with special educational needs in mainstream settings. All Level 6 or trainee Level 6 Career Advisers and Coaches working with young people across our area welcome. Please RSVP info@4ypuk.com at your earliest convenience and we will send all participants a Teams link to join.
STEM Opportunities update – please share with STEM lead and any other relevant staff
STEM Learning’s 2026 placements programme is open. Next summer, eligible Year 12 or equivalent students can participate in a hands-on UK workplace experience. Students benefit from a bursary, and STEM Learning takes care of all the logistics, from securing placements to providing resources and support – so you can focus on encouraging participation. For further details, visit STEM Learning’s website or contact the programme team directly via students@stem.org.uk.
STEM Learning’s Spring mentoring now ready for sign ups a chance for your students to join STEM Learning’s high-impact mentoring programme launching in February. It’s open to young people aged 13–19, completely free, simple to promote, and fully supported throughout. Discover more here or contact students@stem.org.uk to see how to get your students involved.
Winter virtual national Professional careers forum 27/01/26 15.30 – 16.30 Hosted by Julie Poppleton, Director of careers at Terrance Chase Academy. For a meeting link email J.Poppleton@chaseterraceacademy.co.uk Guest speakers include Emma Bridge IDP, Katherine Jennick, – Whats My Strength, Romario Ellis – The Outer Circle, and Matthew Williams – Futures for all.
ERIC’s Netflix-style on-demand library of creative career talks – For National Apprenticeship Week & National Careers Week, ERIC is centralising talks designed for schools, colleges and universities to help students aged 14–21 explore creative career pathways.
👉 Library launching Monday 9 February to kick off National Apprenticeship Week 👉 More talks dropping Monday 2 March for National Careers Week 👉 The library will be available all year round, with new talks added regularly 👉 Register your school, college or university now to get access and launch-day updates
‘Request a Volunteer’– volunteering opportunities page added to the drop-down menu for schools/colleges for easy access. Please add any events for this and next term asap, planning mailout to volunteers soon.
Volunteering Opportunities– added to the dropdown menu for employers/volunteers for easy access, so they can see opportunities for them to get involved in. Please share with any of your Industry Champions/volunteers.
Hub CPD and Masterclasses– New page added to drop down menu ‘news & events’ with recordings and slides of our hub’s CPD.
