Highlights from The Exam Man podcast Season 1, Episode 8
During Season 1, Simon shared his experience of becoming an exams officer at an independent rural school after retiring from teaching. We discuss the challenges, including managing stress, dealing with unexpected issues, and ensuring exams run smoothly, together with the importance of preparation and staying calm. We touch on the role of invigilators, their management and their training.
We're very pleased to have Simon Robinson with us. Simon, thank you very much for joining us. Can you just tell us a little bit about your school? First of all, where it is and what sort of school it is?
I work at Monkton Combe School, which is just outside Bath. It’s an independent school with about 400 pupils in the senior school. I'm the exams officer and I'm part time. And I guess I’m what you'd call old school. I was a Head of Department before I became an exams officer.
So what made you make that move into doing exams?
I actually kind of retired from teaching in 2017, and moved down to this neck of the woods, because my wife had history down here. The Principal where I was working in Hertfordshire, used to be the Principal at Monkton, so sent word before I arrived. I ended up doing some science supply teaching, and was then asked if I'd like to be the exams officer.
Did you jump at that opportunity?
The part time element really appealed to me. The Deputy Headteacher had said to me in the interview that he described the job as being lumpy. And we're about to enter the great big lump. I'm fortunate because I also have an exam administrator who is also the school Data Manager. So, we are an exam team- plus the invigilators. During exams I have to get up about half past five in the morning because I have an Irish setter and so I have to get the morning walk out the way. I was doing about 30,000 steps a day during the last exam season!
Going into this years' exam season, what are the things that you're most dreading and what are the things you’re most looking forward to?
I'm actually pretty relaxed about it. I used to give this really corny advice to students who were super anxious about exams. I used to say “Are you going to try your best?” And they'd look at me and say, “Well, of course I am.” And I'd say “Well, then you've got nothing to worry about.” And that advice applies to me. We've done lots of preparation and we're continuing to prepare. So what will happen will happen, the future will take care of itself.
It helps that I'm near retirement and, as I don't have another job to go to, this will be my final job. So I don't have to worry about my future career and disaster befalling me!
I suppose the advice I'd give to any new exams officer- and there always seems to be plenty of those!- is that preparation is everything. If you can, prepare to the nth degree and so the exams just kind of run themselves. It means that you've got the space to deal with the unexpected stuff that always happens.
Your website looks beautiful – can you tell us a bit about the location of the school and the impact of that?
It's in this valley outside Bath. It is just to die for. It's a great location and I feel very fortunate. Bizarrely my line manager lives at the end of my garden, just over my garden wall. We live in a village, just outside Bradford-on-Avon. When I started at Monkton, she was on maternity leave so I didn't know her when she moved in next door to me. And then we discovered we were colleagues. But it's great, actually. During Covid, we were having quite a few socially distanced outdoor meetings over the garden wall. It was really handy.
That probably sounds like some people's worst nightmare. But I guess it depends on your relationship with colleagues!
I popped into lunch at the beginning of the exam season last year, and just happened to sit opposite the Principal. He said to me, “I really don't fancy your job”. And I said to him, “Well, Chris, that's funny, because I don't fancy yours either.” And we had a great 10 minutes discussing why we wouldn't want to do each other's job!
Why did he not want to do your job?
It was all the things you kind of expect. The senior management responsibility without the senior management pay. And I think actually a lot of people from the outside looking in at our job think, how could you possibly do that? I get this response all the time.
Do you have a regular team of invigilators?
I've got nine invigilators, which is actually quite a lot for me. We've got three or four GCSE students who are doing speech to text. So we need separate rooms for them and that's a bit of a challenge because you increase the number of invigilators. This means you can't give each invigilator as much invigilation as they actually want.
But I'm actually blessed, because amongst Monkton employees we have graduate teaching assistants who I also train up as invigilators. If there's any shortfall I can use them, so I don't lose sleep over whether I've got enough invigilator cover. I won't go near a teacher because, having been a teacher myself, I know absolutely how useless we are at invigilation!
Do you ever do it yourself?
I hate it. I did it for all my teaching career. I was utterly useless at it.
To be honest, we didn't know the regulations and then about 10 years ago JCQ said we had to be trained. I remember sitting in this training session just wondering what on earth I was doing.
You'd know who the staff were who were utterly useless invigilators, and unreliable, so that you wouldn't get relieved on time. And then as a Head of Department, at the tail end of the summer term, when you've got all the planning for the next year to do, you just end up really resenting the time spent as an invigilator.
We sometimes use teachers for mock exams but you're almost dragging people to go, which I completely understand. But I think having a separate trained invigilation team is generally a good thing.
That's part of the job I enjoy most, running that team. It's good fun.
I'm always amazed. I've got an invigilator at the moment who’s been all over the world as a diplomat. Why does she want to invigilate, £11.44 an hour? But she loves it and I think she enjoys the fact that I'm in charge and all she has to do is come in and do her job. The invigilators all know each other, and they enjoy meeting each other. It's sometimes a bit of a struggle at the start of things to say, “Hey, guys, we've got an exam to run. Can we just kind of focus on the exam?” They're so happy to see each other again. And they have the attraction that they eat with the students here and that all the meals are free.
The invigilators are often mothers and this is their first step back into the world of work. Then I find they’ve got themselves another job, and so there’s a kind of conveyor belt as they move on.
Most of my invigilators are round about retirement age, but every now and then I get a young person and it puts a bit of fresh energy into the team. We get some university students as well.
I don't even look at young people, because it's only going to be for one season. And you have to put so much training into them that it's hardly worth it.
So you're going to update us during the exam season about how things are going and how you’re getting on? We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the best of luck, and hope it all goes smoothly and calmly.
Well, thank you. I hope I'm as cheerful in my reports as I am now!
Okay, lovely to talk to you.
And you guys, take care.
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If you’d like to find out more about Monkton School, please visit: https://monktonschool.com
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