Examscreen: More Than A Clock!

[00:00:15] Those of you who've listened to the podcast regularly will have heard us mention Examscreen

[00:00:21] from time to time. You'll have seen it on some of our social media posts. You'll have

[00:00:25] heard a few of the guests have mentioned it, certainly some of the exams officers that

[00:00:30] featured have mentioned using the Examscreen. And we've realised we hadn't really talked

[00:00:35] about it that much on what it is and some of you might not have really heard about it before or

[00:00:41] seen it. So we're going to go straight in for a little potted history of Examscreen and I'm also

[00:00:47] going to test John. I've just been pulling up quite a lot of facts about Examscreen, see if we can

[00:00:52] remember. I have a very bad long-term memory so this... My short-term memory's alright actually

[00:00:59] because my long-term memory's not the best. Sorry. Yeah. I'll give it a go.

[00:01:04] But I thought what would be interesting first John is if you could explain what Examscreen is

[00:01:09] because I am terrible at this when people ask me to explain it. Do you know what? I'm quite

[00:01:12] terrible at this as well. I don't know why. I think there's like a thing in business that you

[00:01:18] should always be able to... If you can't explain it to like a six-year-old, then you basically

[00:01:24] need to go back to the job. Yeah. But I really struggle. It was very funny when we first started,

[00:01:30] when I first started kind of designing it and things like that. I couldn't really explain it to

[00:01:35] anybody who didn't really understand the exam so I just basically called it a clock. And a couple

[00:01:41] of friends for hours were very funny because every time I saw them they'd be like, how's your

[00:01:46] clock doing? And they'd be like, you've reinvented the clock. It's a lot of clock chat. Yeah,

[00:01:52] loads of clock chat. Okay. So let me have a go at this. So Examscreen is basically a display

[00:01:58] screen for exam rooms. So when you are sat in the exam room, you're looking at this screen

[00:02:04] and on the screen is a clock. There is a clock. And then there's all the other information

[00:02:12] that you require for that exam. So it'll be the exam title, the start time, the finish time.

[00:02:19] If you have an extra time, it will be up there as well. So that's all quite simple but

[00:02:24] it's a bit cleverer than that. So it does calculate. It's now, it wasn't initially.

[00:02:28] Yeah, it wasn't initially. So it does calculate. It calculates finish times, it calculates extra

[00:02:33] time. And it also contains a massive database of all the exams which means that as a school

[00:02:40] centre you can kind of tailor it to whatever qualifications your school does so that when

[00:02:45] you're invigilators turn up on an exam day, they just have to open it up and from a little

[00:02:51] drop down menu they can select exactly the exams that your school does and set up the information

[00:02:57] for candidates in a matter of seconds often but certainly just a couple of minutes at the very

[00:03:03] most. That's pretty good. Oh thank you very much. Not bad. Thank you. Should we talk about first as

[00:03:10] well about the problem that was solving? Yeah, why did you come up with it? Right,

[00:03:19] time that this happened. I can remember when I had the idea for it. I can remember that moment.

[00:03:24] So it was 2018 and it was towards the end of our exam season. I think it was like our year 10

[00:03:33] exams at the end of the year. I've got April on a document I've called. No, I think that's

[00:03:38] probably a bit wrong. I think it's probably more like late June early July. And we, there

[00:03:44] was something going on in our hall which meant that we had moved the students to a different

[00:03:49] venue and we'd done a very quick setup in that room for the students. I think it was like a

[00:03:56] gym or something and we'd put up like a projector and a screen in the gym to sort of put all the

[00:04:03] exam information on. Write it on? Yeah, so what I'd done was I had like a, I'd put, I'd opened

[00:04:09] a Word document and I'd found like an online clock and like this online clock obviously yeah,

[00:04:14] had ads plastered all over it. And then I split the screen so we had the exam information written on

[00:04:19] the Word document on one side and then the clock on the other side. And I was like that's kind of

[00:04:24] good but it also sort of looks terrible as well. So it just looked like quite messy. It was

[00:04:30] certainly better than you know sort of scrolling it on like a flip chart board that nobody could

[00:04:36] read and was really small. But it just still wasn't quite right. And I at that moment I just thought

[00:04:42] surely there's a way of doing this like in a much cleaner, clearer professional way. And so

[00:04:49] then what I did was I went away and I just started designing PowerPoint slides and I've

[00:04:55] still got some of those slides. I do remember seeing quite an early variation.

[00:05:00] Yeah. And then I had a conversation with someone at work

[00:05:09] sort of asking about who was our computer science teacher. And I said to him you know like how would

[00:05:15] you go about doing this you know if you wanted to do it? And he sort of just gave me a few hints

[00:05:20] really. I thought at one point about sort of you know saying do you want to come on board.

[00:05:24] You did, you did. I remember that. He was leaving the school and he was very busy. We had a bit

[00:05:28] of a chat about it anyway. He wasn't interested but he gave me some advice about what to do.

[00:05:33] And basically and in previous jobs I'd done a little bit of web design as well. And so I

[00:05:40] understood I understood a bit about you know kind of a little bit of programming and things like that.

[00:05:46] So over that summer not much, not much. I taught myself quite a lot using the internet. But

[00:05:52] that summer 2018 summer we just spent a lot of time didn't we? We sat in the living room in the

[00:05:59] evening and I was just seeing that. I was watching Love Island. You were watching Love Island as we

[00:06:04] know you love reality TV. And I was also watching Love Island but I was also on the laptop like

[00:06:11] trying to try to get this thing together and managed to over the course of that summer come

[00:06:17] up with basically. And that point I did think you were going a bit mad to be honest because

[00:06:20] I just kept looking over at you and just like drawing. And our friends who I was talking about

[00:06:24] so he's sort of about the clock would often we're coming over weren't they? And I think they're a

[00:06:28] bit like what has he gone mad? Like what is he doing? He's creating a clock like an online clock.

[00:06:35] So I but I just kept doing it over the summer. You were quite enjoyed it though didn't you?

[00:06:40] Learning how to code and yeah it was a fun really fun experience. Didn't you did a couple

[00:06:44] of courses didn't you online didn't you? Yeah I did a little of like three kind of courses

[00:06:49] on coding and stuff. But the one memory I really have is our niece Meg was what she'd have been

[00:06:58] probably doing a GCSE at the time. She's about 16 yeah probably yeah she can be stayed. And I remember

[00:07:02] I remember showing her like this thing and explaining to her what it was going to be.

[00:07:08] And she got blessed that she was so polite. She's like oh yeah that looks great that's

[00:07:14] fantastic. We have to ask her now what she actually thought. Oh my god what is he doing?

[00:07:20] So yeah so kind of designed a prototype then which was ready sort of by about like

[00:07:26] but you were at this point only thinking I'm just going to use it for my exams weren't you?

[00:07:31] Yeah I hadn't thought I mean I don't know like maybe I had thought a bit broader than that

[00:07:36] like you know because I guess with anything like you think if I'm if I'm creating something

[00:07:41] like genuinely new here then other people might might like it and actually you know I did get to

[00:07:46] that point by about sort of October I think it was 2018 where I was like I've done this thing I think

[00:07:51] it's really good and I'm going to share it with some people. So I did share it with a few exams

[00:07:55] officers locally yeah some locally and also some others that I knew through the Facebook group

[00:08:02] and it just started to get bounced around and actually within that group it got bounced around

[00:08:07] quite a lot and all of a sudden and I was sort of tracking we hosted it on a site called

[00:08:14] examscreen.co.uk came up with the name exam screen which I think we'll talk about a bit in a little

[00:08:20] bit but yeah hosted it and people just started using it and we were tracking it with Google

[00:08:27] Analytics just seeing how many people going on and yeah we just had a few days like where like

[00:08:33] 300 people separate people were coming on to the site to use it which felt so good yeah which was

[00:08:40] just incredible and I was like wow what's happening this was about the point that I started being

[00:08:44] interested in your class. Yeah well I suddenly was like oh interesting yeah yeah so that was good

[00:08:53] so um yeah and it just kept it kept getting shared and one of the things that really taught me

[00:08:59] actually that initial bit where people started picking it up was the thing that I guess maybe I

[00:09:04] knew from my own experience but I didn't realize quite how widespread it was was just how well

[00:09:09] networked exams officers are and how willing they are to share their own practice with each other

[00:09:14] so and that was a really um that was a really eye-opening thing. It was just really fun wasn't

[00:09:22] it? It was really fun yeah it continues to be really fun to be honest. It's always been fun

[00:09:26] yeah but yeah particularly that stage you know when you're starting something new it is really

[00:09:31] exciting. I don't know what you're doing with it really it's just enjoying it. No, yeah. But

[00:09:34] you were really using it at school and in your school and enjoying using it weren't you

[00:09:40] but it was a very very basic. It was very rudimentary yeah um and I guess that's an

[00:09:46] interesting thing as well about one of the things that I learned through doing that process

[00:09:50] which I think I'm now much more able to apply generally in life than I was before was that

[00:09:55] it's just better to do things and get them out there and then improve them from that point you

[00:10:01] know we feed back and we criticize them. Yeah which is exactly what we did with the podcast

[00:10:05] rather than sit around for ages trying to make something perfect and then sort of going out

[00:10:11] with it and I think I do have kind of perfectionist sort of tendencies which um and I don't say that

[00:10:18] in a humble brag kind of way like I don't think I genuinely don't believe that it's a good thing

[00:10:24] because I think a lot of success in life comes actually from

[00:10:27] from being brave enough to say I know this isn't perfect but I need to get out there

[00:10:31] like I need to push this thing out there and that's the way that then I can make it better

[00:10:36] and improve it and and actually really tailor it well to what people want rather than what I

[00:10:40] think they want you know um so yeah so the launch unit was definitely like an interesting

[00:10:46] experience. I think it was just because it was something that you wanted to use yourself

[00:10:50] was why it was really liked because you know if um you knew what people needed because you

[00:10:57] would do it yourself. I definitely had a yeah yeah a really a decent idea of what I thought

[00:11:02] people would like and but then like so I got some particularly in those first few months some

[00:11:07] amazing suggestions things I hadn't thought of or things I'd missed which um which really helped

[00:11:14] to push it along quickly improve it quickly I mean that more and more schools wanted to

[00:11:19] to use it um yeah so that was a really really fun time um but one thing we did one thing we

[00:11:28] did learn at that point was about the name wasn't it which has always been really interesting I mean

[00:11:32] I exam screen was just something that came very naturally and I thought very quickly and I was

[00:11:37] like that's such a good name like it's really simple really clear about what it is but

[00:11:42] but the the key thing to realise about exam screen I had it all as one word but um

[00:11:50] it's one of those things that um your phone will auto correct so obviously when anyone ever sends

[00:11:56] me a message about exam screen now it's kind of from my point of view it's spelled wrong

[00:12:00] like it's always exam screen two words um our son has always called our six year old has always

[00:12:07] called it exam scream exam scream you will not exam scream again which makes it

[00:12:13] sound way more exciting than it actually is um but yeah but it was a it was a simple name

[00:12:19] and I think it works you know it's sort of it's sort of yeah yeah definitely

[00:12:32] okay John so now we're gonna have a little quiz as I mentioned um so I didn't actually know

[00:12:39] these little I had to pull them up myself and I'd forgotten quite a lot of this so

[00:12:43] mainly dates but some key stats of the journey of exam screen so how many schools used exam screen

[00:12:51] in the summer of 2019 so this is just the first first year that you created how many

[00:12:58] I'm gonna go for probably about 500 550 well yeah I remember I remember GCSE the first big

[00:13:08] science exam GCSE biology exam and after that going on to the google analytics and just being like

[00:13:16] dumbfounded yeah like yeah yeah really amazed um and yeah there was also something else that was

[00:13:24] big that happened around that time what did what did we win that sort of changed the

[00:13:30] I feel this was quite a pivotal moment so this is this is um where I think you have been so

[00:13:39] instrumental in this process of growing exam screen and making it work is that you have

[00:13:46] always just said let's just do that um and one of the things you wanted us to do was to enter

[00:13:55] into a competition well I just thought it was brilliant yeah what you done so yeah but I would

[00:14:00] have did something I would never have done I would never have done that I would I don't know I'd have

[00:14:05] shied away from something like that but you entered us into a competition run by um a company

[00:14:11] called cool initiatives which is sort of the yeah the business investment arm of cool milk

[00:14:17] which some of you may have heard of which you've got primary age children yeah there's a

[00:14:25] lot of things involved with primary schools yeah we'll get on to it in a bit um but they were running

[00:14:32] a really interesting competition that I came across and it was um well I mean to be honest

[00:14:37] the the main reason it was interesting it was because it had a large cash prize and at that

[00:14:42] point we were thinking well obviously this is free yeah um we probably put about a thousand

[00:14:49] pound into exam screen at that point in terms of you making the basic yeah like website um but

[00:14:57] we were suddenly aware that we had you know over 500 schools using it for their GCSE exams and it

[00:15:03] was suddenly like we need to put a bit of money into this to make sure it's a cure you know um

[00:15:08] proper and if it's going to grow like this we need we need to make this you know a proper

[00:15:12] proper thing yeah so I saw that um this this was a competition that had actual prize money

[00:15:18] attached which is actually is quite rare now um so I thought that was the initial thing and then it

[00:15:23] was obviously related to education ed techs oh we're quite a good fit it was looking for new

[00:15:27] startups that were doing really um high impact stuff that were really kind of innovative yeah you

[00:15:33] had to be able to show that you were you that basically that your product was kind of already

[00:15:38] a bit successful that it was that it was already having an impact on schools um and you know I

[00:15:44] had absolutely no hopes for this I thought they think it was weird that it's just this page with a

[00:15:50] clock on they'd be like what what you were quite antsy and I was quite and also I remember the first

[00:15:56] time that like it was a series of rounds I think there was like a first round then a semi final

[00:16:01] and then a final and I remember in the first round like my laptop didn't work and they couldn't

[00:16:06] hear me and I was I was literally on the point of just being like I'll just slam the

[00:16:11] top down forget this and but for some reason like just stuck with it we got we got through that first

[00:16:16] round and then what I really noticed about doing that process was it was so helpful it made me think

[00:16:22] about what we were doing so much um it was a great time for us to have something like that

[00:16:30] and we and I also want to mention um a guy called Tim stirrup yeah who's a wonderful guy

[00:16:39] who basically was working at core initiatives at the time and his job was to kind of help you

[00:16:44] through this process of being in this competition it was incredibly well run wasn't it I had some

[00:16:49] just fantastic conversations with him and the advice he gave was always absolutely on point

[00:16:54] and I could tell from quite early on I think that he really liked the product he thought it was

[00:16:58] a really like simple elegant solution to a genuine problem um so I always felt he was kind

[00:17:05] of on our side a little bit um but he was um he was so helpful in terms of um the advice and

[00:17:13] support he gave and really a really pivotal important time for us where it was important

[00:17:17] for someone to actually say this is good externally validating I think what um what we kind of knew

[00:17:23] was sort of taking off a little bit but you know we didn't have I mean any experience

[00:17:29] of this having a start up so it that was really exciting and then when you you know went to

[00:17:34] the final you had to present didn't you I had to present and there was some some you know some quite

[00:17:41] successful people within education who were on the kind of finals panel so I had to do a

[00:17:47] presentation to them um and that was very daunting but again it was like a really

[00:17:53] valuable kind of thing to do um we didn't win did we no interesting but we did come second

[00:18:00] which came with um a little small well not insignificant it was a good it was a good cash

[00:18:06] for what for what we needed to do at the time which was to improve the website of it enhanced

[00:18:11] security yeah it was it was really covered that we were so excited yeah we did go out

[00:18:18] for a meal and buy a 40 pound bottle of wine yeah we did with the meal which was brilliant

[00:18:22] to celebrate yeah that was very exciting which for us at the time because yeah we just had our

[00:18:28] first kid hadn't we and um so we didn't ever before that second or second oh our second sorry yep sorry

[00:18:33] sorry boys um so we didn't have a lot of money and so something like that was like that was great

[00:18:39] also a nice little treat um for ourselves but the rest and we also we should mention this point

[00:18:44] although we didn't win the judged competition we did win they had like a people's choice award

[00:18:49] where people could could um could vote for you there'll be people listening to this who voted

[00:18:55] yeah yeah exactly because of what I said before about exams officers being networks like we were

[00:19:01] really able to mobilise people to vote for this and I hope that they did not just out of being nice

[00:19:07] but because they genuinely thought the exam screen was great um and so I think we won that by some

[00:19:12] distance yeah we did and I think um it just changed everything after that it was just so

[00:19:17] motivating and we did have then have the cash to do what we needed to do to make

[00:19:22] yeah to make the next step yeah wasn't it with what happened can I talk about the next yeah so

[00:19:29] what date I've just got the date for when we launched the new version so we look we we

[00:19:33] after that we went on a process of developing the site it's quite a key date um and actually

[00:19:39] we didn't really develop the tool itself the exam screen screen with the clock and that we didn't

[00:19:45] we didn't do too much to that but we we turned it into a fully functioning website didn't we

[00:19:50] yeah um which we launched I think in February 2020 yes bang how can you forget yes I can't

[00:19:59] forget anyway we'll get to that in a minute but so what we did with the site at that point was to

[00:20:05] we wanted to add this database of exams so that people could um they didn't have to type in all

[00:20:11] their information every time they had an exam so that we could create these drop down menus on

[00:20:15] the screen where people could select reduce the chance of errors reduce the chance of errors

[00:20:19] speed up the process of preparing your exam room making it easier for them to later yeah so that

[00:20:24] was slightly beyond my technical skills so that was the first point at which we got some help didn't

[00:20:30] we yeah and I should mention drew drew char yeah who was at the time I sometimes cringe when I

[00:20:36] think about to do what our conversations were like half 11 on a Friday night go

[00:20:43] true urgent we need something fixed and he would get back to us at like 4am on a Saturday go yeah

[00:20:50] sure yeah and I mean I look back now and think no we were not doing it correctly he was so polite

[00:20:56] with us the whole time and he was absolutely he did such a good job didn't he it was absolutely

[00:21:01] perfect for for what we needed at the time um so yeah so we created a site where then people

[00:21:08] could create an account for their school they could select the exam boards that they were doing

[00:21:15] and yeah and just start to customize exam screen for themselves a little bit and so that was a key

[00:21:21] sort of development that we wanted to do at that stage so February 2020 was when the new

[00:21:28] version launched and yeah and what happened in March 2020 so we'll never forget this no um so

[00:21:38] can that catch me before we the launch state we talked about the launch date right okay so

[00:21:43] this is amazing this was a great example of I thought you don't we don't have a clue what we do

[00:21:48] it no so um we're like we picked out this date and um this is how much we didn't have a clue

[00:21:55] what we're doing we launched the website like it came live at like midnight I think it was on the 27th

[00:22:01] yeah and um I didn't book the next day off work as leave so I didn't realize how big it was gonna be

[00:22:09] I went to work and um left me I was basically left you holding the baby literally with a baby

[00:22:18] yeah um our baby yeah our baby and then the laptop yeah and all of a sudden yeah I was like oh my god

[00:22:28] and I couldn't get hold of you at work and it was just it just went mad yeah yeah there was an issue

[00:22:33] I think it was to do with um like emails from the site weren't getting through or something like that

[00:22:39] so people were having stroke they couldn't set up accounts and things like and obviously by this

[00:22:44] stage people were using exam screen really regularly yeah so they were really relying on it and then it

[00:22:49] not kind of working properly was like it was really and my phone was just going off like mad

[00:22:56] absolute mad and I think if um Paula Merrill is listening Paula we had a conversation at one

[00:23:03] point during the morning uh and because I answered my mobile and spoke to her and um she was so nice

[00:23:10] honestly she was so nice she was like I just had a bit of a problem with this and I was like oh my

[00:23:15] god my phone's kicking off so um so I was actually starting to kind of panic a little bit I think

[00:23:21] yeah I was massively panicking so at lunchtime it's just like right I'm going home I'm going home

[00:23:25] and you said I remember you coming into the room you were like right I'm gonna sort it out

[00:23:29] now because I've been obviously really trying to keep everything under control on what it

[00:23:32] so you went up to work upstairs yeah and then I came up and I thought god John's really

[00:23:37] gone quiet oh god I hope everything's all right so I came upstairs again with baby under my arm

[00:23:42] came into um into the room and all I could see was your feet and your face was flat down on the

[00:23:48] bed and I was like and you were still like in a suit yeah and I thought you were dead I thought

[00:23:52] you dropped dead one thing yeah one thing you need to know about me and so if you now know

[00:23:58] very well is that when I'm acutely stressed I just go to sleep yeah but now I know after

[00:24:02] that but I genuinely thought you were dead I thought we've launched an exam screen it's

[00:24:05] crashing you've died yeah all in one more then so if anyone remembers that that day and like

[00:24:10] that's what I was doing I was I was passing out with stress um I think there are a few people

[00:24:15] I remember talking to I think Rehana Patel was another one um Paula yeah yeah probably a few

[00:24:22] others but it's people so lovely yeah yeah but it was made the reason that it we all got

[00:24:26] was that the demand was incredible and we hadn't quite no and anyway it was quite it ended

[00:24:32] big quite simple problem it got fixed but then obviously a month and a half later something

[00:24:37] much bigger happened yeah which we've obviously touched on multiple times but um

[00:24:43] covid came and then obviously no one had any need for exam screen yeah so we thought that was that

[00:24:47] then we kind of did I mean and you know we've had that conversation in our covid episode as

[00:24:52] well about like how for a time you could it was plausible to think that we might never get back

[00:24:57] yeah and in terms of exam screen we just thought oh well that was a bit fun yeah um and I think

[00:25:03] because it happened we were a bit sad oh we were sad but like not like now if that happened

[00:25:07] we'd be devastated because it's such an important part of our life but it was just so much fun

[00:25:12] and we're like oh my god I can't believe it's that's it because it won't pick up again after

[00:25:17] all of this what was so fascinating was that it did keep going through covid and I don't know

[00:25:22] we don't have a an alternative reality where we can see what would have happened if there had been no

[00:25:27] covid but um it did continue to grow yeah it really did continue to to want to use it and obviously

[00:25:34] so yeah go on that note what happened in November 2020 November 2020 is that twinkle

[00:25:45] nope no um no November another award clue

[00:25:52] ah was that the education investor awards yeah so we're finalist and that was an online

[00:25:59] oh that was because I wasn't so um so we've twice been finalists in these awards the

[00:26:04] education investor awards I've got a very funny story about the one that we did attend in person

[00:26:10] a couple of years ago which I'm not sure if I can tell that's for a separate maybe um I think we need

[00:26:15] to do like a subscriber only yeah you have to like sign an nda before you like join our group yeah

[00:26:22] like kind of age fair but um anyway the first one November 2020 so it was an online event wasn't

[00:26:31] it yeah because this event's normally like black tight they told you like to get dressed up so we

[00:26:35] were sat in our living room like it wasn't locked up but it was like basically yeah I had a suit on

[00:26:41] and you had like a cocktail dress on just sat on sat in our living room with a laptop on that lap

[00:26:45] yeah um and we yeah we're a finalist in that we didn't we didn't win but it was that was

[00:26:50] and it was because it had grown basically during that time people were still using it

[00:26:54] yeah so international schools had really started to pick up at that point yeah and I should we

[00:26:58] should at this point um mention Rebecca Rowley yeah who featured in season one who's been

[00:27:03] one of our guests in season one because she picked it up in um early in the UAE and

[00:27:09] still the UAE is after the UK is our second biggest country for schools largely down to

[00:27:16] Rebecca which tell everyone about it's highly down to Rebecca Rowley yeah hugely grateful yeah yeah

[00:27:23] um okay then so you mentioned twinkle when was that oh maybe the following year 2021

[00:27:30] yeah what month I'm gonna say towards the end of the year so like December yeah December very good um

[00:27:37] and yeah it's part of our primary primary education focus we don't know how many of you will

[00:27:45] know who twinkle are but I suspect probably most of you I'd say anybody who's had kids go to

[00:27:51] primary school in the last 10 or so years would know who to incul all those worksheets

[00:27:56] oh because yeah the worksheets um if you've ever seen the Santander adverts with Anton Beck as well

[00:28:05] that the thing that they promote um that um is the Santander Programming Schools done in

[00:28:11] partnership with twinkle as well um so twinkle was a massive education publishing company uh and

[00:28:18] well at the time that we sort of joined forces with them they had to like um a little hub didn't

[00:28:23] for education and other businesses that they wanted to help um and um business accelerator but

[00:28:31] yeah had to be kind of yeah so we ended up partnering with them in late 2021 which has been

[00:28:37] a really valuable like interesting experiences there yeah and a big thanks to um but all the

[00:28:44] team at twinkle hive has been fantastic and to Jonathan Seaton who's the CEO who who

[00:28:50] spoke quite a few evenings Jonathan's seen MBE sorry sorry John um yeah uh few evenings with us

[00:28:57] yeah yeah the access that we got to Jonathan was incredible I mean he and his wife have built this

[00:29:06] incredible yeah company and and so to be able to get some insight from him was amazing so one

[00:29:12] particular story we've got on that got a lot to thank him so um we when we launched the latest

[00:29:18] at version of the website which was which we'll talk about uh or July 2022 tonight yes well done

[00:29:27] you're better than me on these but when we were developing that the latest version of the site

[00:29:32] we had a lot of debates didn't we about exactly how we wanted it to work and um I sort of you

[00:29:41] know like how sometimes you just have moments of madness I did think this is all right well

[00:29:45] bothers but I trusted your judgment okay well I sort of had this idea of one of the key features

[00:29:51] of exams going to have been the big database of exams that we created and I had this idea that

[00:29:57] we didn't need to do this anymore that the new website was going to be so easy to use and efficient

[00:30:02] that people would just end up like creating their own catalogs within their account of exams

[00:30:08] and so I really wanted to proceed on this basis and I remember we got an email didn't we from um

[00:30:16] someone at twinkle saying Jonathan would like to have a meeting with you and this is obviously like

[00:30:22] most people are like struggling to get access to have a conversation with him

[00:30:26] and so we were like wow he even wants to talk to like he wants to talk to us

[00:30:31] you're like what's going on here and we sat there and basically for about half an hour he grilled me

[00:30:38] on why I thought that this was a good idea and he never to be fair to him he never said that he never

[00:30:45] said you're this is wrong you're doing the wrong thing here you make a mistake but it was clear

[00:30:50] but the very fact that he'd wanted to talk to us and it was kind of a hint wasn't it yeah it was

[00:30:56] and um because you afterwards you were a bit like oh no so anyway uh I had a long think about it and we

[00:31:04] had several conversations didn't we and then we decided that it was a mistake and then we had to go back

[00:31:09] to the developer and be like yeah you've worked on yeah can you yeah and it's funny like sometimes

[00:31:12] I mentioned that story to exam screen users now and they always say they're always like what

[00:31:18] yeah that's the best bit

[00:31:27] so where are we now John in terms of exam screen 2024 yeah yeah so we're getting towards the end

[00:31:34] of 2024 now so exam screen is six years old um we're now in over 1500 schools which is really

[00:31:42] exciting in the UK and internationally um and um yeah there's a few things around that that I'm

[00:31:49] sort of really pleased about so um one of the things that's been true of exam screen right from

[00:31:55] the start uh when it started getting shared and spread out was that it spread very evenly kind of

[00:32:02] geographically yeah which has been fantastic so one of the things I think sometimes we're sort

[00:32:07] of particularly new technology in digital tools is that they will often cluster in areas where

[00:32:14] they've been shared within local networks and yeah but they'll often cluster in areas where

[00:32:19] there's good access to technology and good infrastructure so often around London

[00:32:26] and we do have a lot of schools in London but there is no area of the UK in which exam screen

[00:32:31] it's not used and actually the coverage of exam screens very very even yeah across areas you

[00:32:36] know obviously in cities there's it gets more use but it is pretty much in every

[00:32:42] area of the UK which is really really pleasing um the other thing uh that I'm really happy with

[00:32:49] is the fact that it's used in all kinds of different schools so it's not that schools

[00:32:54] that again have access to great resources have taken up exam screen it's that all types of

[00:33:02] schools and when you think one of the purposes really behind exam screen is trying to make

[00:33:06] the exam system a bit more standardized and a bit fairer in the sense that everyone's having the same

[00:33:11] experience the same environment in the exam room that's also another thing which is is really great

[00:33:17] is that it's in you know some of the top independent schools in the country uh that one where a lot of

[00:33:23] prime ministers go to it's in that school yeah one of the first schools to sign up yeah yeah um

[00:33:29] but it's also in you know schools community schools you know very small secondaries yes special

[00:33:38] schools as well yeah interesting thing on that as well is that it's used by quite a lot of special

[00:33:43] schools but also we get quite a lot of contact don't we from um managers of scnd in schools who

[00:33:51] say to us how much they like exam screen um and the clarity that it provides for students in the

[00:33:57] exam room so that's that's another thing that's really pleasing um and I guess the the final thing

[00:34:03] that that you know i'm really proud of is um the fact that it's really user friendly which means that

[00:34:09] it hasn't been it hasn't like excluded people so one of the things that exams officers tell

[00:34:14] me quite a lot and obviously exams officers are very used to using all kinds of different

[00:34:18] software and so they were always going to be able to deal with something like exam screen

[00:34:23] but what a lot of exams officers tell us is just how much their invigilators enjoy using

[00:34:28] exam screen and often when they first introduce it the invigilators will be a bit sort of reticent

[00:34:34] because it's a new piece of technology but actually once they see it and get to use it it's almost

[00:34:39] like they're arguing over who's going to get to set it up and that sort of thing um and so

[00:34:44] introducing a piece of technology which hasn't frightened people um but that has been embraced

[00:34:50] I think is something that I am I'm really kind of happy about um yeah particularly as things move

[00:34:56] towards um digital exams and yeah digital to digital exams and that's good isn't it yeah I

[00:35:03] think so so um obviously there is that sort of journey going on and it may take quite a long time

[00:35:09] but I think in the interim what exam screen does is that it um enables invigilators and people

[00:35:16] in exam rooms to get used to the idea of using technology as part of the exam experience and I

[00:35:23] think that exam screen has enabled people to have success in doing that which means that they

[00:35:28] feel more comfortable with it more open to it as well yeah yeah absolutely so as more complex

[00:35:33] technology potentially gets rolled out it won't be such a battle to convince people that you

[00:35:40] know it can be done be good yeah so that's I'm really pleased with that um obviously there are

[00:35:46] kind of like ongoing challenges aren't there yeah with running exam screen um I think one of the things

[00:35:53] like you've talked about this um on another podcast that we did um is about um the responsibility

[00:36:02] yeah involved do you want to explain a bit about what yeah I think um because at first it and because

[00:36:09] it spread so organically and you were sort of playing with it at your own school to see you know

[00:36:15] how it would work at that point didn't think too much about the responsibility um aspect of it um

[00:36:21] but yeah we talked on a podcast that we went on recently about how there was one day um in the

[00:36:27] summer exam season what year was that that would have been it was perhaps a couple of years ago

[00:36:32] I think it was that first year after back off the cravid wasn't it yeah and um and it suddenly

[00:36:37] dawned on me how many hundreds of thousands of students were sitting in an exam room yeah on the

[00:36:43] morning I think it was like GCSE English or something yeah and would have been sat in a

[00:36:46] hall looking at exam screen yeah and I suddenly like you know full knots in my stomach of yeah oh my

[00:36:52] god yeah huge responsibility so I think it is important for um everyone who does use exam

[00:36:58] screen who listens to this podcast is that how seriously we take it yeah yeah we do we really

[00:37:03] it's always been a really interesting question with exam screen is like who is the user

[00:37:08] because obviously you've got the exams officer in the school who's sort of in charge of the account

[00:37:13] but it's the students then you've got yeah then you've got the invigilators who use it in the

[00:37:16] exam room but ultimately the primary user is actually the student because it's for the

[00:37:20] students that's it that's who it's who it's meant for um and so you know sometimes we can forget

[00:37:26] that I suppose because we're dealing you know with with the people who are actually running exams

[00:37:31] logging into the program and but actually the user to a large extent is also the student as well so

[00:37:39] so yeah you can sometimes forget you have that huge responsibility but yeah it is but that means

[00:37:45] it matters so it does yeah yeah yeah it's important um I think kind of one of the the other things

[00:37:52] is obviously we get amazing feedback don't we and we have great conversations with people

[00:37:57] yeah all the time yeah it's lovely so many of the developments that we've made to it and the way

[00:38:03] that we've been able to improve it have come from oh totally they're much better suggests

[00:38:08] that we have a woodcut up for it yeah so um so but one of the things I always find really hard

[00:38:13] is like we get so many good suggestions is like balancing that making improvements but also

[00:38:19] with trying to keep the essence of it which is something that's really simple and really user

[00:38:23] friendly particularly about how things look on the screen is maintaining the integrity of the

[00:38:29] screen yeah um which is sometimes quite hard to explain but it does just have to be kept that

[00:38:34] simple just always thinking again about the student but also thinking about user friendliness in

[00:38:39] terms of invigilators you might be setting it up to like not over complicate it so it's that

[00:38:44] thing about always trying to make it better without overcomplicating um so that's a real

[00:38:49] real challenge we've launched a couple of new features this year which I think

[00:38:54] so far seem to have gone down pretty well so um so we do we do always listen to suggestions we always

[00:38:59] take them very seriously and we often try things out and a lot of the time they work sometimes

[00:39:04] they don't but yeah that's that's sort of one ongoing thing that we're always thinking about

[00:39:11] um I think one sort of final thing uh we'd like to do is just we've thanked quite a lot of people

[00:39:18] on this episode yeah there are a few people who we're sort of working with obviously exam screen

[00:39:22] is really just Sophie and I as a as a team but we now having done it for six years we have a sort

[00:39:27] of support network around us who who help us small but mighty team yeah small but mighty team who

[00:39:33] really help us with exam screen um principally we have um uh a development team from a company

[00:39:40] called Staxo um legends who are absolute legends and we should particularly mention

[00:39:47] Julie Parr and Peter Goreing who manage our relationship with them and manage us manage us

[00:39:53] and keep all our kind of ongoing developments and projects on track yeah um and then also um

[00:40:00] I'd like to mention David Goreing who is our sort of chief development consultant and uh Chris Seale

[00:40:09] who is helped us massively with the design of exam screen um and all those people have paid a

[00:40:16] really pivotal role in how exam screen looks and works now so um so yeah thank you thank you guys

[00:40:23] um and and finally um two people who we definitely need to thank so every year you know we and

[00:40:30] we've talked about this we we load this massive database of exams into exam screen it's very

[00:40:36] time consuming um process um but we also are so desperate to make sure that everything is correct

[00:40:45] it goes through many stages doesn't it yeah obviously if on an exam day you would put an exam

[00:40:52] up on the screen and some of the information wasn't right that could have a really bad effect

[00:40:58] so we are so desperate to get everything right uh and we have a fantastic checking team so we put

[00:41:05] all the exams in there but we have an amazing checking team which is constituted of uh Sue and

[00:41:11] Martin Gaston who are my mum and dad this is very much a family business very much a family business

[00:41:17] who sit and some people say we're exploiting retired people um yeah we'll keep maybe we should

[00:41:25] keep quiet about it um but they sit and they meticulously check all the exams that we put

[00:41:31] into the system before any exam season and they really help us to feel confident yeah they put it

[00:41:37] into that um that what we're putting out there is is is right um and is going to do the job for all

[00:41:42] of you so so a massive thank you to Sue and Martin for that I hope you've enjoyed this little

[00:41:58] potted history of exam screen if you work in a school and you're not using it uh and you

[00:42:04] know more then um please contact myself or Sophie we're at john.gaston at examscreen.co.uk or sofi.gaston

[00:42:11] at examscreen.co.uk you can also contact us via the website's contact page as well if you go to

[00:42:19] the homepage examscreen.co.uk then you can set up a seven day free trial there for your school

[00:42:25] and check out all the features that are available

[00:42:28] thank you so much for listening to the exam man podcast we really really appreciate your support

[00:42:36] remember that you can access it on all the major podcast platforms give us a rating give us a follow

[00:42:43] and we will catch you next time