Highlights from a special episode of The Exam Man podcast released in August 2025, to coincide with GCSE results week
For this episode, released to mark GCSE results’ week, we chatted to the brilliant Jennifer Halpin, Exams Team Leader at David Ross Education Trust. She supports the Exams Officers across the 11 secondary schools in DRET- a really innovative and interesting role.
Jen, do you want to start by telling us a little bit about how you first came into working in exams and what your journey since then has been?
Like a lot of people that you've previously spoken to, I just fell into the role. I wasn't ever dreaming of becoming an Exams Officer or expecting that to happen. But due to life changes and circumstances I was looking to relocate and I saw a job advert, I think at the time it was advertised as Exams and Data Assistant, which led me to believe that I was maybe going to be assisting somebody. I was still quite young, in my early 20s, and I was offered the job, which also meant moving out of my hometown and it was a very exciting time. I don't think I was necessarily expecting to be handed such a huge responsibility. On my first day, I can remember very clearly asking about the Exams Officer, and then it turned out that that was me. I was terrified, as you can imagine, but it turned out to be one of the best things ever.
But everyone says the same thing, that you end up feeling really out of your depth and there's so much to learn. You often don't come in at the start of things, but halfway through. For me, I started about two weeks before final exam entries were due, and I didn't really know what I was doing at all. Thankfully, because I had worked in a school before, I did know of another Exams Officer. So I just reached out to her and was very honest and said, what on earth am I supposed to be doing here? And she helped me through.
Then we just took it from there, various training events, being supported by my colleagues in school and other people whom I discovered along the way and who were doing the role. And I did that for about 10 years. At our trust our team is part of the IT and data team, and the opportunity came up to become exams Team Leader. I was lucky enough to be offered that position.
So what does that involve? It's not that common, is it, across trusts?
No, I actually don't know anybody else that does the role. We've got 11 secondaries in our trust and I've got a team of 11 Exams Officers. That's made up of individuals who have got very little experience, those who have literally just completed their first exam series. But we also have people on the trust that have been doing it for many, many years. So my key responsibility is to support and deliver training that meets the needs of the whole team.
It's certainly not all me. The more experienced exams officers are a huge support to those that are fairly new. My role is to support them through the role and make sure that they have a good understanding of what's required and that they're happy and comfortable and feel supported.
Such a lovely model, isn't it? Because it must be so rewarding for the experienced Exams Officers like you to be able to impart that knowledge and experience that you've gained over the years.
My role was brand new when I started so there was no example of what I needed to do, but it’s really common to talk to people who say that it's quite a lonely role. I just really want my team to feel like there is somebody else there with them, they're not on their own and there's plenty of support available to them. But we're across the country, so it's not always possible to be there in person with them. We've got a really good Teams network, which is fabulous. We all support each other on a daily basis.
Do you come together as well? Do you come together as a team over the year?
We have several team meetings across the year. It's always such a lovely event. We usually focus on whatever stage of the exam cycle we're in at that moment in time. We do also have some data responsibilities, so we'll often talk about that as well. We meet three to four times per year in person, usually at our headquarters.
Obviously I get to see them from time to time because I can travel between schools, but the Exams Officers themselves don't have that opportunity all the time. We do encourage them to visit other schools if they do wish to do that, so that they can see best practice and get to know other Exams Officers and pick up a few key skills from other people on the team. But it's only at the team meetings where we all get together as a group.
Well, I'm just trying to compare it to what I had when I started. I went for the assistant role and ended up being the Exams Officer. Because you said you'd worked in a school before, did you have any sense of how big the role was before you started it, or was it just a complete shock?
It was a complete shock. I'd worked in a school for a year as a receptionist. Although I knew the Exams Officer, I didn't really understand what their role involved. I was still in my early 20s, so it was only just a few years before that I'd done my own A levels. My experience up until that date was being at the receiving end so, no, I was completely blind to the role.
That's quite interesting because I started when I was about 30, so about 10, 12 years after I'd done my A levels. And actually the exam system had changed quite a lot in that time. When I was at school, there were no modular exams. And then when I started in the Exams Office role, in about 2011, all the modular exams still existed, which of course have gone now. I started in September and I was straight into it with science and maths and English exams in November. It just hits you so fast.
I started about the February half term. So right around the time that entries were due!
Did you have any moments when you thought, I can't do this, I'm going to walk out?
Probably every single day. No, I do joke. In the lead up to the exam season, no, because I didn't quite know what was about to hit me. I think on the morning of the first exam I felt really calm, but the invigilators around me weren't necessarily as calm as I was. And I very much feed off other people's energy, so that made me feel really anxious. And of course, the invigilators then started pointing out a few things that needed to still be done, which of course is very helpful. But in that moment, especially knowing that you've only perhaps got 30 minutes to go until you're supposed to be inviting the candidates in, it was very stressful. And yes, at the time, I was going home every day, feeling like maybe I can't hack this.
So what do you think got you through? And what kept you going?
Just perseverance. I actually really loved it. The thrill of the exam season is fantastic. The candidates mostly, and my colleagues. The actual experience of supporting certain candidates through the experience is really rewarding. Those that are either going through a really tough time or just particularly anxious about exams. They start out as just another face in the corridor that you don't particularly know. But then you very quickly get to know their personality and little bits about them. And you’re really rooting for them.
That's always one thing that I've loved about the role. But even though there wasn't the community that there is now, my colleagues and my line manager at the time, a lady called Michelle, really supported me through it, even though she hadn't done the role herself and she didn't really understand the role herself. She could see the level of pressure that it puts on a person, and especially somebody who wants to do really well, but doesn't know what they're doing.
Having a line manager, who's knowledgeable, is useful. But I don't think it's anywhere near as important as having someone who's genuinely supportive and genuinely wants you to do well. And someone who is trying to help you as best they can. I've always had a line manager who doesn't necessarily know the ins and outs of the job, hasn't done it themselves, but has always been supportive but then given you the autonomy to do the job, by giving you the confidence, the sense that they have trust in you.
I think they’re also very relieved that you can successfully pull off an exam season and they haven't had to deal with any big dramas. I think they appreciate you.
I think that's very true to the role that I'm in now as well, because my line manager is the director of IT. So he doesn't have an exams background. And often there'll be topics that we need to talk about where I might have to explain what it is that we're doing or why we can't do things a certain way. But he's incredibly supportive of everything that I do. He’s supportive, grateful and kind, whether things don't go quite so well, or when things are going really well, I know that he's always got my back. And that is one of the most valuable things to me. And he’s also a great role model for me, because I know that I want to lead the way that he leads. And I want to make the members of my team feel the same way that he makes me feel, very supported and I could literally tackle anything and that it will be okay. It's very, very important.
Jen, I think if you've got any vacancies at David Ross, you're going to get loads of applications for Exams Officers to work for you in the Trust!
Oh, that's really sweet of you to say.
It sounds like an amazing place to work. Do you miss being an exams officer now that you're doing this role? Are there any days where you wish you were back doing the role itself?
Definitely. I know that we'll probably talk about Results Day shortly, but that is the Christmas of the exam season, isn't it? And downloading results for students that you know really well is a special moment. To assist with results when you don't know the students quite so well is still a lovely thing to do, but when you do know the students really, really well, and you've got students that were particularly anxious or suffering through something at the time of exams, and then you see that they've got a fantastic set of results, that's wonderful. But I'm still quite heavily involved in exam days themselves, so I don't really get the chance to miss that.
What are you doing then on exam days? What does your day to day look like through the exam season?
It's very varied. This summer, we had an Exams Officer who unfortunately was poorly for the exam season. She was unable to run any exams this year, completely through no fault of her own. So I spent the majority of my time this summer based at that school to support with the contingency process. But ordinarily had that not been the case, it would be supporting the Exams Officers, so travelling between schools or even, if it's a remote meeting with Exams Officers, making sure that they feel well supported and that if they've got any questions, that they can come to me. So if it was a brand new Exams Officer, for example, I might go and observe what they're doing and maybe give them some pointers or some advice.
We can also do things like run a mock JCQ inspection so that I can ask them the questions and see how they are likely to do in a JCQ inspection, which I think fills them equally with joy and dread. But obviously it’s a good experience for them so that they know roughly what to expect. It's always very exciting for me when my first team member has their JCQ inspection so that I can see their report and find out the kinds of things that they discussed that year, because we don't know exactly how it's going to be until that first visit.
That's almost a bit like the kids doing mock exams, isn't it, to get them prepared? They don't like doing them, but it's a really useful part of the process.
Absolutely. I do sometimes give them the option as well. So if it's a new Exams Officer, I'll say, would you like me just to arrive unannounced like a JCQ inspector would do, and then we can go through the process? Of course, with JCQ, it's very essential that you accommodate them, whereas with me it's a little bit more relaxed and I'm not going to stop them in their tracks with what they're doing. They still need to give the exams their full attention, but it's just useful for us to go through a few things so that they get a better idea of what to expect.
What does the experience level look like on your team? How varied actually is it?
Incredibly varied. We have three or four Exams Officers this year that have just completed their first ever exam series. One of my newer officers started in September, so has had a full year of experience but my newest exams officer started in April. So brand new.
That's into the fire, isn't it?
Right into the fire. But my goodness, she delivered. So she should be really proud of herself. And then at the other end, we have one Exams Officer that has done the job for over 20 years now, so has more exams experience than I had when I became the Team Leader. And then we've got everything in between, those that have been doing it for a few years, and then those that have been doing it for a fair amount of time now.
I'm really interested in that person who started in April. If that happened in a school where there wasn't the structure that you have in place, that could be potentially catastrophic, because they may or may not have any experience. How does the structure that you've got in place as a team help when that kind of situation arises?
I am able to be physically there to support. There's a level of prioritising where I need to be and who needs the support. For a new starter, we would try and give them the best induction to the role that we can. With it being so close to the exam season, there is only so much that you can share with that person. Luckily for us, she did work at the school previously and had helped in a contingency situation before.
So she knew where all the rooms were and all the things that you’re talking about at school.
She did.
If you've never worked in a school before, you don't realise how much navigating of corridors there is. That can take a couple of weeks to get used to, can't it? And if you’re the Exams Officer you need to know everything, don't you?
Yes, and it's also one of our bigger schools that she's joined, our London school. She did have that little bit of background knowledge that's really seen her through. But I think it's absolutely testament to her personality. She's very resilient and, as much as she can, very willing to go with the flow and just meet everybody's needs as best she can. She's done that brilliantly. A lot of it is down to the individual's personality, the level of effort, and she's absolutely committed to it 100 percent, which for us has been brilliant.
As the layperson non-Exams Officer here, but having talked to lots of Exams Officers as well, I think it's about that certain personality trait of really quite enjoying something this stressful. You all seem to have that in common. Thriving on that.
It's a good sign, isn't it, if someone can pick it up at that stage and do it successfully? You know they'll be fine the rest of the year.
It's a good sign. I think part of it, like I said, is resilience. And then the other part is just absolutely loving a project.
I love project work. And the exam series really is a big project, isn't it? And it goes on throughout the year. She's been fantastic, not that it hasn't been challenging for her, because of course it has. And there is a level of stress there, which I think needs to be acknowledged, because even the most experienced Exams Officer still feels under such a lot of pressure.
It's one of the most kind of dispiriting things that I have to say to other Exams Officers - you feel stressed now, you will always feel stressed. There's no once you've been doing it for five years, you'll just breeze through it and you won't worry about it. That doesn't happen.
That day never comes, does it?
It never comes. And in a way I think it's one of the things that's kept me wanting to do the same thing year after year, because actually that little bit of adrenaline actually is the thing that can be quite exciting about doing the job.
Definitely.
You were talking about results day, and I suddenly had a flash to that moment, where you import all the results. And obviously, you've made some connections with some of the students throughout the year, but you by no means know them all, particularly if you work in a big school. And you do it every year as well, so it's not a new thing. But I still get this incredible rush of adrenaline when I import those results. You're the first person to see them.
You still stay up all night, John!
I do. I do the thing of importing them from home on a Tuesday night. I do that to make my life easier the next day, but it is also an incredible adrenaline rush. Weirdly it sounds like a boring job, but it's like an adrenaline junkie's job.
I say results day is one of the most sort of exciting days of the year for an Exams Officer, isn't it?
Over the years, I don't think I've ever properly slept on the night before download. I think, as an adult, the first time that I ever started sleepwalking was the night before results download, where clearly my brain just couldn't switch off.
Some of my newer Exams officers have been talking about whether or not they want to have a look at downloading the results just after midnight or whether they're going to wait till the morning. Now, personally, for me, although there is that temptation there, I always prefer to wait till the morning because I feel like there's more support at 6am than there is at midnight.
And obviously as a Team Leader you don’t want to be encouraging people to start working at midnight!
It feels mean enough for someone to be in for 6am but some of them do like to have a look at the results at midnight. The advice that I gave recently to an Exams Officer was, if you would like to see the results at midnight, don't try and download them, just have a look at the secure sites. Then you can see them and you can have that nice moment. But you can also relax knowing that they are there, even if they're not in your MIS system. Whereas the tricky part comes with the actual download itself, doesn't it? It can be a little bit unpredictable and you can get that horrible wheel of doom where nothing's coming in and you don't really understand why. I think to go through that at 6 a.m. is better than going through it at midnight, when nobody else can help you.
I'd agree with that. I've got a question, Jen. It's a little bit more kind of around your trust-wide role and how it came about, because it's a really innovative thing for them to have done. And as you said, we've not spoken to anyone who's in a similar role, particularly across the larger trusts.And I just wondered if there are other roles across the schools within the trust that has a Team Leader role like this? So, you're leading on exams, do they have IT Team Leaders across the school, et cetera? Is it a role that's across different functions?
I think the job title probably varies a little bit. I can only think of two people who are labelled as a Team Leader. But if I just speak briefly about the IT and data team - we've obviously got a hierarchy, with my line manager, who is the director of IT. And then we have certain areas of IT that are covered by a manager. We obviously have regions, because we're not a group of schools all in one county. So there is an IT Team Leader. But with any sort of area across the trust, where there's expertise, we do have a go-to person, somebody that does take responsibility for it. So we've got a head of data and we've got a fantastic team that are working on AI.
The reason I asked really is that, through all the conversations we've had on the podcast so far, raising the profile and the status of Exams Officers has come up lots of times. It's just really interesting that your trust has chosen to have someone in the exams lead across schools. I wonder if the other people will follow suit.
Before my role was in place, we were line managed by people who worked in IT, who were of course very supportive colleagues and were able to do a lot of the pastoral side of things when it comes to support. But actually having knowledge of the work was limited because they've got their own area of expertise, they've got their own jobs to do.
So I think the role was introduced so that the person or people that got the role were people who had the experience themselves. I'm not the most experienced Exams Officer, and I'm sure John will agree, there is no such thing as the final completed version of an Exams Officer. There isn't somebody out there that has experienced everything or knows every last final detail of the regulations. So really it was about creating that community that we've now got and that we're building on, but also being able to offer real practical advice on how to do certain tasks or to offer support through certain issues that they might face. So it is unique and it's really special.
I've got a really important question as well for you, Jen. Do you work year round or have you got the summer off?
I work all year round, Sophie.
So does John. You're not mid six weeks break then?
Sadly not, no. Having said that, I don't have children. I'm happy to work all year round, and there's lots of projects that I can work on over the summer.
It's easier when the schools are shut, isn't it?
Definitely. Far more peaceful.
I guess you can be a bit more strategic about the work that you're doing over the summer as well, rather than, reacting to what's going on.
Definitely. But I think also, as an Exams Officer, especially if you’re working term time, plus a week or so to do results days, for me there was always that I've actually got loads to do. And if I go into school I'm not paid to be there and to do that work today. Or you'd work from home and do some things, just to satisfy yourself that it's been done. But since going from term time only to full time, it gives me a lot of time to work on projects for the new year.
For example, as a trust, last year I created an invigilator training package that we could all use so that each individual Exams Officer didn't have to come up with their own presentation. Until I get the new ICE booklet, I can't finalise that because I need to look at the changes. But I've got the foundations in place so that that can be released at the beginning of the new year and the Exams Officers can tick that element off quite early on in the year without having to worry about it too much.
That's fantastic. Yeah, that's a great idea. It’s so helpful if you can roll things out across a bunch of schools rather than everyone just doing their own little thing.
It's something that grows over time as well. I don't expect that the training package that I put together last year was perfect by any means.
Because everyone can feed in, can't they?
Exactly. I had a little working group that helped me put that together. So I put the content together and then my very patient partner actually did the voiceover for the training.
Being the voiceover for Examscreen, I can totally relate!
She's a music teacher, so she’s got all of the really good microphones and the good equipment to do it.
More professional than me then.
And far more techie than I am. So she was able to put it together with a little bit of music in the background and it was good, but the training itself certainly wasn't perfect. I've been able to reflect on that throughout the year and think about how I want to do things slightly differently this year.
But hopefully that just takes the pressure off the Exams Officers themselves knowing that they can just press play and then answer any questions that the invigilators might have after that. Or just talk about things that are very centre specific that obviously I can't cover for everybody.
I think that's fantastic. Have you in any way promoted your model or the way that you're doing things or some of the work that you're doing outside of your trust?
In a way, yes. We've started doing some webinars, which are very much still in their infancy. I did two just before the exam season. One was on invigilator training support and the other was tips on how to prepare for the exam season. The idea behind that is that we wanted to offer something as we've recognized that what we've got is great. We wanted to share that with others, but for it to be free and accessible and relatable as well.
The advice that I've given in my webinar that I did just before the exam seasons, it was 10 tips on stress-free planning for the exam season. It wasn't all massively JCQ regulation focused. There were a few other things in there that were just my own personal advice on things that I would do. So, for example, there's a section about having a contingency mindset and just having a couple of hours out of a day where you think about the what ifs and what would realistically happen if one of those things were to come true.
That's a great phrase. I'm going to start using that - a contingency mindset.
I've been trying to plug it all year with my Exams Officers. As I said before, we've got Exams Officers that have been doing it for many, many years. And I had 10 years' experience of being an Exams Officer, but it was in a coastal grammar school. So the issues that I might have faced are not necessarily the same issues that other Exams Officers face.
So, for example, when I first got the job, I'd never had to do a transferred candidate. I'd never had to do an alternative site. There are some things that I've just never had to do myself, but it's about having that knowledge on how to handle it if it did come up.
Do you know one thing I've never had to do in 14 years? I've never had to photocopy an exam paper onto coloured paper. I find it so funny because sometimes when I look at the Exams Officer Facebook group, on some days that's all it's about …. “had a nightmare photocopying onto coloured paper this morning.” Everyone’s experience is very different. One thing I think is massive is the size of the school you work in as well, because if you're working with a massive cohort and you've got eight halls etc, then obviously the complexity grows, doesn't it?
What do you enjoy most about it, Jen, before we finish? What's your favourite thing about it?
What's my favourite thing? I think the sense of community, it's something that I probably really missed out on at the beginning. And it's something that has grown over time.
Just the fact that this podcast exists, there's a lot more available now than there was when I first started. And I think, especially through the webinars, through just talking about what it is that we do, for me it's always been about trying to eliminate that sense of loneliness. And I think in our team, we've accomplished that really, really well. We're all very supportive of one another. And I do think there are Exams Officers out there, either just starting out in their career, or they're not part of a trust or an academy. You know, they are stand-alone doing what they're doing by themselves but now there's some support out there that they can access.
The thing that I love the most is definitely the community that we've built. It feels like we're a team of superheroes. There's nothing that we can't solve when we put our heads together. And we're all really supportive of one another. So just the camaraderie of being part of that and the day to day enjoying each other's company and being able to vent a bit of frustration or celebrate people's triumphs, of course. That's a really big thing. I've just had four or five of my Exams Officers complete the Exams Officer professional standards course. So it was lovely to do that this year and I framed their certificates and we had a little presentation. It made it a real moment of celebration, which was really lovely. So for me, the belonging to a community is definitely the thing that I enjoy the most about the role.
Well, I'm sure they feel incredibly lucky to have your reassurance and presence and support.
I hope they do.
It's been so interesting about your role. Thank you so much for taking a bit of time out of the summer as well to talk to us, Particularly when you've got a wedding to get ready for. I think the rest of your day is going to be slightly more exciting.
The truth is I did forget about the wedding. I've just got to get immediately ready and out of the door.
I hope you have an amazing time and good luck with the results for all your schools.
Thank you so much for chatting with me.
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