After the frantically busy summer term and August results day(s) the start of the new academic year offers Exams Officers the opportunity to work at a more relaxed pace. But of course, whilst some colleagues may assume that Exam Officers don’t have much to do at this point in the academic year, the Autumn term is when important strategic planning for the coming year happens and there are a number of key tasks to think about.

The start to the autumn term is all about planning and preparation

I am an Exams Officer working in a relatively new Sixth Form College in Suffolk. We opened our doors to the first students in 2019 and the cohort is continuing to grow. This month we have welcomed over 600 new year 12 students to the College and our student cohort now totals over 1,100. The new cohort of students have now been enrolled, teaching and learning has started, and the new term is now underway.

If you have been in post a while you will be aware that Exam Officers work on a continuous annual cycle with events and deadlines taking place at roughly the same time every year. During September I am continuing to process post results enquiries and endless access to scripts requests but my focus is now also turning to the 2024/2025 exam cycle. One of my first tasks is to familiarise myself with awarding body and JCQ regulation changes (including JCQ Instructions for conducting exams and General regulations for approved centres), updating the exam area of the College website with important information for students and their parents/carers, collating entry information for the November series, liaising with the SENCO to ensure that access arrangements are in place, and starting my strategic planning for the new exam cycle.

If you are a new Exams Officer, it may feel quite daunting knowing where to start with your planning. A good starting point is to gather feedback on the recent summer exam series. “What went right?” and “What could have gone better?” and discuss this feedback with your line manager at one of your regular meetings.  Our Face-to-Face training event Steps for Success – New Exam Officers also offers invaluable support for staff new to working in exams, including Exam Managers, Exam Officers and Exam Assistants.

Creating a centre exam / key dates calendar

A crucial part of my planning involves creating an exam / key dates calendar that is specific to my centre. There are lots of free planning tools to be found online, but I prefer to use a simple spreadsheet to create a centre specific document which includes events (i.e. dates base data released), key tasks for each month (i.e. receive and distribute certificates), key dates (i.e. awarding body deadlines), internal deadlines (which are set ahead of external deadlines), dates when internal mock exams are taking place and dates when NEA, coursework, controlled assessment and practical exams are scheduled to take place.

A good starting point for creating a centre exam calendar is the JCQ key dates document and awarding body timetables.  All information relevant to your centre can be collated into one document.  This will enable you to highlight particularly busy periods, identify points when you will need additional support from the senior leadership team, and set up reminders to ensure no import tasks or deadlines are missed.  Remember, missed deadlines can lead to expensive awarding body penalty fees!  By cross checking against the academic calendar and liaising with your line manager you can also ensure that there are no clashes or conflicts with other centre events. And don’t forget to share the centre exam calendar with your senior leadership team!

If you are new to the role of Exams Officer and feeling a little daunted by all the tasks to be done, then you will find our Steps for Success for new Exam Officers training an ideal starting point.

Meet with your line manager

Effective line manager support is crucial to the Exams Officer role, so it is important to ensure that your line manager makes time to meet with you regularly, is aware of the key stages in the exam process and that together you identify the support that you in order to perform your role successfully.

Ensure that you share your centre exam calendar with your line manager and cross check this against the academic calendar to ensure that there are no clashes or conflicts.

From my centre exam calendar, I have already identified that our growing cohort means an increased invigilation need, more exam desks must be purchased, and additional rooms need to be identified and agreed for use as ‘smaller shared rooms’ or for ‘separate invigilation’ to accommodate the growing number of access arrangements and special requirements. These are conversations that I will be having with my line manager this term.

Building relationships with teaching staff and subject leaders

Building relationships with teaching staff and subject leaders is a key part of the Exam Officer role and if, like mine, your centre has new members of teaching staff starting this term it’s good practice to introduce yourself and start building working relationships. You will need to set up awarding body secure website access for them and remember that you are an important contact and source of exam information for them.

September is also the time to liaise with subject or department leaders to check that the qualification information that you hold is up to date for the new academic year. If a subject department is switching to a different exam board or changing specification, it is important that you are made aware of this so there are no nasty surprises at exam entry time.

Invigilation recruitment and retention

Quite simply, without sufficient trained invigilators exams cannot run. I am lucky enough to have a strong and loyal team of invigilators, but the transient nature of the role means that recruitment is an ongoing process year on year. With our student intake having increased since last year I also need to address the invigilation needs of a growing cohort.

In order to allow time for all of the stages of the recruitment and training process it’s important to start this process early in the academic year so I will be meeting with my line manager this month to discuss the anticipated invigilation needs and also liaising with the HR team to start the recruitment process.  

Recruitment tips

As well as running a recruitment advert and posting invigilator vacancies on our centre website I find that reaching out to parents of our students by email is an excellent way of attracting new invigilators. Even if they are not interested in the role themselves, they may know of someone who would be! With other local schools and colleges also recruiting I find that I need to think creatively about how I can reach the right type of person for the invigilator role. It’s worthwhile contacting local clubs and groups where you may find retired professionals or individuals with time on their hands and looking for a way of contributing and making a difference in their local community. In order to retain invigilators, it’s also important to ensure that the team receive ongoing training, feel valued, appreciated and supported.

I mentioned at the beginning that the start of the academic year gives us the opportunity to work at a more relaxed pace, but it certainly does still feel like that is a lot to do this month! Good luck with your planning and preparation. If you are looking for training do take a look at our events and training programme which includes our monthly Lunch and Learn Club

Written by Alison Light – an exam professional with over 20 years’ experience.