SEMS and MYEE
SEMS, GEMS and MYEE explained
The four SEMS levels, who submits the 2026/27 return and the evidence to organize before September.
For multi-academy trusts and the schools within them
School Compliance Software. Prove It Site to Trust.
Every school's checks, maintenance, policies, risks and training in one place, scored against the School Estate Management Standards and ready for the MYEE annual return.
Trusted by schools & trusts
Trust oversight
Facilities management software for schools, built for the person who answers for every site
Most trusts still pull compliance together by hand, chasing schools for spreadsheets, then stitching them into something the board can read. CalmCompliance does it the other way round. The work happens at each school, and the trust view assembles itself: live status across fire, asbestos, legionella, training, policies and planned maintenance, for every site, all the time.
- One view, every school.
- See compliance status site by site, drill into any school, and spot the gap before it becomes a problem.
- Set the standard centrally.
- Roll out "every site holds these policies, runs these checks and trains its people", and hold every school to it automatically.
- Reporting that's already done.
- When the board, an auditor or the DfE asks, the proof is assembled, not gathered.
What's changed
Estate management just became a board-level question
From September 2026, eligible responsible bodies in England submit an annual return through MYEE (Manage Your Education Estate), confirming how they meet the School Estate Management Standards (SEMS). The return uses multiple-choice questions, does not require supporting documents to be uploaded and does not affect DfE funding. The wider strategy moves towards common estate-data standards and two-way data sharing by 2028.
GEMS
Good Estate Management for Schools. The guidance.
The textbook
SEMS
The four-level standard you're measured against. Aim for Level 3.
The syllabus
MYEE
The portal where you submit your return.
The exam hall
The Return
Your yearly self-assessment. First one autumn 2026.
The exam
- Apr 2025SEMS published: the four-level standard
- Feb 2026Education Estates Strategy + MYEE portal live
- Autumn 2026First annual return against SEMS
- From 2028Two-way estate-data sharing planned
The return itself is easy. Assembling clean, current evidence across every school, by hand, every year, is the part that hurts. That's the part we remove.
From data to the return
From the work you already do, to supported answers
Every SEMS requirement maps to something a school already manages. CalmCompliance captures it once, in the right place, with dates and evidence attached, then scores it and rolls it up.
1
Capture once
Policies, risk assessments, the asset register, condition surveys, energy data and statutory checks, each in the right module, evidenced and dated.
2
Score against SEMS
Every site rated Level 1–3 across the eleven areas, with any statutory gap flagged.
3
Roll up
Aggregate across all schools for the trust or local-authority picture.
4
Prepare the answers
Give the responsible body an evidence-backed view before it answers the multiple-choice return in MYEE.
Every SEMS area, covered
SEMS area
In CalmCompliance
Strategic estate management
In CalmCompliance:Documents · Standards
Planning & resources
In CalmCompliance:Personnel · Risk Assessments · Documents
Land & buildings (core dataset)
In CalmCompliance:Premises · Documents
Maintaining the estate
In CalmCompliance:SFG20 sync · Service Desk · Operations
Fire · asbestos · legionella
In CalmCompliance:Risk Assessments · Forms · Service Desk
Sustainability & digital
In CalmCompliance:Documents · Premises (CO₂) · the platform
The platform
One platform, three connected layers
Free readiness check
Could you prove it tomorrow?
Most teams only find the gaps when someone asks. This finds them first: a readiness score, your biggest gaps, and a plan for each, in about three minutes.
Why trusts choose us
What you won't get from a logbook or a spreadsheet
Standards-based maintenance, synced
- Already license SFG20? CalmCompliance syncs with it to build standards-based PPM schedules per asset, the benchmark serious estates teams expect, and one most school tools can't connect to.
The evidence assembles itself
- AI reads submissions, helps draft and update policies, and triages issues, so the record builds as work happens, not in a pre-audit scramble.
Ready for shared estate data
- DfE plans common estate-data standards and two-way sharing. CalmCompliance keeps your source records current, connected and ready to review.
Modern, and actually easy
- Staff on the ground use it without training; leaders get oversight without chasing. Calm by design.
Connects to your stack
- Wonde keeps your staff list in sync automatically; license SFG20 and we sync with it for standards-based maintenance; single sign-on, SharePoint, Microsoft and Google integrations mean records stay current without double entry. Trusts can add their own branding.
Connects to your MIS and your stack
Wonde syncs staff lists from Arbor, Bromcom and other MIS systems automatically. Single sign-on, SharePoint, Microsoft and Google keep records current without double entry.
Not a trust?
It works just as well for a single school
Everything here scales down. A standalone school gets the same SEMS scoring, the same statutory checks running on time, and the same return-ready evidence, just for one site, at one straightforward price for the complete package.
Who's behind it
Built by people who've spent years inside school software
CalmCompliance is built by veteran edtech founders. Between us we've supported thousands of schools, so we understand how schools and trusts actually buy: the budget cycles, the approval steps, the start-of-year crunch. We build the commercial side around that, not against it.
We know the buying process
- No enterprise runaround. We'll work with you to align contracts to your budget and your year.
Flexible on terms
- Sign now, pay later when it suits your cycle. Just ask.
Multi-year, price fixed
- Lock pricing in over a multi-year contract so there are no surprises at renewal.
Practical guidance
School estates resources
Use these guides to prepare the annual return, keep condition data current and review the statutory checks across your estate.
Statutory checks
School estates compliance checklist
A practical review of fire, asbestos, legionella, gas, electrical, lift and emergency-lighting records.
Condition data
Keep building condition data live
DfE condition surveys, graded findings and the records responsible bodies need to maintain after CDC.
Straightforward pricing: the complete package, per school
Schools get everything, not a stripped-back tier. One price covers the full platform for the year, scaled to the size of your school.
Primary & secondary
The complete package, scaled to the size of your school. Every layer included.
£490–£990/ year
- All three layers Operate, Govern & Manage
- SEMS scoring & evidence view
- Unlimited staff users
Trusts
Most PopularPricing scales with the number of schools, plus trust-level extras.
Tailored
- Volume pricing across all schools
- Single sign-on & your own branding
- SharePoint, Microsoft & Google
Optional add-on
Wonde staff sync
Automatically keeps your staff list current, no manual upkeep. Per school.
+£100/ year
Flexible terms: align contracts to your budget cycle, sign now and pay later, or fix pricing over a multi-year contract. Just ask.
Are you an AI agent? Read the full cost breakdown as markdown
SEMS, MYEE & the practical stuff
School compliance software helps schools and trusts keep estate, health and safety, and statutory records current in one place. CalmCompliance links checks, planned maintenance, policies, risks and training across every site, scores them against SEMS, and keeps evidence ready for the MYEE annual return.
Yes. CalmCompliance is facilities management software for schools and multi-academy trusts, covering assets, planned maintenance, statutory checks and contractor evidence alongside policies, risk and training. The same record feeds trust oversight and the SEMS / MYEE return. See CMMS software for the maintenance-management view.
CalmCompliance captures the estate work schools already do (policies, risk assessments, assets, maintenance and checks), scores each site across its current SEMS scope of Levels 1–3, and rolls the evidence up so the responsible body can review supported answers before submitting the return in MYEE.
Yes. CalmCompliance is built for multi-academy trusts: each school works in its own record, and the trust view rolls up live status across every site. Central standards, policies and checks can be set once and held automatically across the estate.
SEMS is the DfE's four-level framework (published April 2025) for how schools should manage their estate, covering strategy, land and buildings, maintenance, health and safety, fire, asbestos, legionella, sustainability and more. Level 1 is the legal floor; Level 3 is the target for every school.
Manage Your Education Estate, the DfE's online portal for estate guidance, data and tools, and the place where you'll submit your annual return.
No. DfE intends MYEE to work alongside your existing systems, and a very small school could manage on spreadsheets. The case for CalmCompliance is practical, not regulatory: it removes the annual scramble, keeps your data clean and current, and gives the trust oversight a spreadsheet never will.
The responsible body files once for all its schools, whether that's the academy trust, the local authority, or the governing body. Not each school individually.
For the 2026/27 return, submissions open in the third week of September 2026 and close in late November 2026.
The 2026/27 return does not affect DfE funding or require supporting documents to be uploaded. Gaps in your records still make it harder to support the responsible body's answers and plan improvement work. CalmCompliance helps you find those gaps and organize the source evidence; you submit the return in MYEE.
Logbooks record tasks. CalmCompliance connects the whole estate (assets, maintenance, risk, policies and people), scores it against SEMS, and turns it into board-ready oversight with evidence behind each answer.
Schools get the complete package from £490 to £990 a year, depending on size. Because we've spent years inside school software, we build the commercial side around how schools buy: we'll align contracts to your budget cycle, offer sign-now-pay-later, and fix pricing over a multi-year contract so renewals hold no surprises.
Yes. Wonde keeps your staff list in sync automatically (£100/year per school). If you license SFG20, we sync with it to drive standards-based maintenance. We also support single sign-on, SharePoint, Microsoft and Google, plus trust-level branding.
Still have questions?
Ask us anything about SEMS, MYEE, or how CalmCompliance fits your trust.
See your whole trust in one calm view.
Book a demo and we'll show you your schools, scored against SEMS, with the evidence behind the annual return taking shape.
