Highlights from The Exam Man podcast, Series 1 Episode 3
Our first ever guest on The Exam Man podcast was Marina Antoniou, a former colleague of Sophie's from the start of their teaching careers in London. We spoke to her about her experiences at an inner London school, whilst she was on her Easter holidays in Cyprus. We discussed the various roles she has undertaken in the past and her current role both as teacher and recently appointed Exams Officer. She described the ethos at the school and how they prepare pupils for sitting exams, as well as the highs and lows of the role for her and also the significance the school attaches to her Exam Officer role.
What school do you work at, Marina? Could you also tell our audience a little bit about the context of the school?
I've been at the same school this whole time, a secondary school in Camberwell called Sacred Heart. It's an inner London school. The students are mostly from Camberwell, Brixton, and Peckham for those people who are familiar with South London. We have higher than average free school meals, much higher than average English as an additional language. The school is not selective, and it's Catholic. That's the only way we do select, based on Catholicity and distance.
What is it about Sacred Heart that's meant that you've wanted to stay there for over 20 years?
The ethos of the school is one which I agree with, and I follow, and the kids are great. I think that's probably the number one thing. The kids are just great. And it's a really good place to work. I feel looked after. I kind of ended up there by accident, as it was my second placement when I was training as a teacher, and I've just stayed there forever.
So you have taught there for a long time, but you've had other roles as well, haven't you, within the school? Can you tell us a bit about what you've done?
I started off as, and still am, a Science teacher, and over the years, I've been second in charge of Science, I've been Head of Citizenship, I've been Head of Vocational Subjects. I've also been involved in the sixth form, either as Head of Year or as Director, or sixth form Deputy Director. And then I reached the heady heights of exams!
You’ve really made it then! That's a slightly interesting journey, because a lot of Exams Officers have other roles, but they tend to be other support functions within the school. But yours is almost a bit more old school, in that you're a member now of the leadership team within the school, and you've taken on the role from there?
It's always been a senior management role at Sacred Heart.
That's interesting, because if you went back about 25 years, I think most of the people who ran exams would have been senior leaders. And then something changed. I think running exams got more complex, and some of the bigger schools felt that they needed someone just to do that. But some schools have retained a senior leader who also runs exams. Is it difficult to balance your different responsibilities?
It's really difficult. Sacred Heart is quite traditional, and whilst we look forward and outwards constantly for ways to improve, we know that having the Exams Officer role as being somebody in senior management has always worked, because it's a role that's taken really seriously, and the kids automatically take it seriously too. So we don't really want to deviate from that. It’s a massive undertaking in terms of admin, and I have a teaching timetable, and I’m still doing other responsibilities pertaining to senior management. So it's full on.
What are the things that surprised you about the exams world, maybe things that you didn't know before? Are you surprised by how much work is involved in it?
I shadowed the previous exams officer for the last couple of years before he went. So I was aware of how much was involved in some sense. But those two years were also the Covid years, so it was a bit of a baptism by fire. I think it's more the technical stuff. I think I used to ask you in the first couple of years for advice a lot, John, and you were really helpful on things to do with SIMS, tiny things like what to do when the system locked. Stuff like that surprised me.
It's quite a varied job, isn't it? You've got to have technical knowledge, but then you've got to also be able to organize people and things like that. What does your invigilation team look like?
We have a lovely team of invigilators. They're not teaching staff, they’re support staff and they come in for exams. But I want to point out that we use the invigilators for all of the exams at Sacred Heart, so it's not just public exams. We do exams, properly, twice a year in the hall for all year groups, starting from Year 7 onwards. I worked out that 50% of the time there are exams going on!
You are a very high performing school, aren’t you, in terms of the exam results that you get as a school? You are often in the top 10 schools in England for Progress 8. What do you think it is about the school and the way the school is run that mean your students get such good exam results?
It is a special place. People who visit say that it's a special place. I think sometimes people thought Sacred Heart was some kind of exam factory but once you actually visit and you speak to the kids and you speak to us, we're not that. Everybody's really hard working, staff and students. We've always had a culture of no excuses, always work your hardest, and be a good person. Our values are far more important than just exams. I think in terms of our good performance at Progress 8, the kids are so used to doing their exams twice a year in the hall. They always have me at the front starting them off, and they see the same faces, the same invigilators, it's always the same routine and that makes it a little bit easier. Then it’s not such a big deal by the time they get to Year 10 or Year 11, and they start doing public exams.
We want them to be resilient. That is one of our core values we always talk about. We want them to be resilient, and we want them to be able to deal with the stress and not be freaking out over exams. I'm not going to tell you that exams aren't stressful at Sacred Heart. Of course, they are. Exams are stressful, and they're supposed to be stressful, but we do our very best to make it as normal for them as possible and make them used to it. You can't mollycoddle them. They’re going to have to do exams sooner or later. and it just makes sense to prepare the students well for it.
What do you most enjoy about the exams role and what do you least enjoy about it?
Before I became Exams Officer, I always used to joke around with the previous Exams Officer. Before he retired, I used to say to him, I want to grow up and be like you. It must be so satisfying. The fact that it’s a cycle.
I'm a creature of habit. I really like the routine. I like knowing that we're going to do the exams now, and I'm going to take everything off my list, fill up my log, and then pack everything up neatly. And those are probably the things that I hate as well! I always tell the kids that it’s like taking a flight. I'm your captain and the invigilators are the flight attendants, and my job is to steer you as comfortably as possible through this flight ie; the exam. They look at me like I'm crazy!
I think the worst part about the job, other than the admin, is the terror. You wake up at one o'clock in the morning, or at least I do, “oh my God, did I do those entries? Did I do that?” And then you work yourself up that you've done something, or that you haven't done something rather, and that it's going to come back and bite you. It’s horrible.
Do you wake up more worrying about exams than you do worrying about teaching?
Yes. 100%.
Do you think that's just because you're a more experienced teacher than Exams Officer, or do you think it's something to do with the nature of what you’re doing?
It’s the money if I'm honest, I'm always worrying that I've forgotten to do something and it'll be a very costly mistake. And I've convinced myself many times that I've made a big, huge mistake, and then I get to school and check, and I haven't made a mistake. But in the meantime I'm imagining all sorts of scenarios telling my Headteacher to take it out of my salary. It's so nice to have somebody who actually understands. Because I'll go home and my husband, just sits there rolling his eyes! In my first year of doing this, I was so excited when you came up for the day to train me, John.
I was really struck by your students that day. They were so polite, they just say “hello” to you when you walk past in a very nice, normal, natural way. I was really impressed with the school.
I'm really pleased you said that because they are really wonderful kids and we're not an exams factory. We do really well with the kids, but we want them to be good people. Saying “Hello” is one of the things we always talk to them about.
I hope it all goes well. See you soon!
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