FROM THE SECURE ROOM: 10 Steps to Exam Season Success

[00:00:15] Okay, so today we are going to talk about how you plan a summer exam season, aren't we?

[00:00:21] Yeah, yeah. We've had to start again though, haven't we?

[00:00:26] So we may have mentioned before, but I'm type 1 diabetic.

[00:00:29] We started recording and my blood sugars just plummeted.

[00:00:34] So we had to stop and Sophie had to go and run and get me some custard creams.

[00:00:39] It's all glamour running.

[00:00:40] I've got like, it's taken me ages to get into the 21st century with this, but I've just got like a new app on my phone, which like, which reads my blood sugar like from a sensor.

[00:00:52] And it now has an alarm that goes off if my blood sugar goes low.

[00:00:56] So we were recording and the alarm went off.

[00:00:58] So it's just been a total disaster.

[00:01:00] But anyway, we're back on it now.

[00:01:01] Don't worry.

[00:01:02] Don't worry.

[00:01:02] We're going to get there.

[00:01:04] Hopefully I won't die halfway through this.

[00:01:07] If it just stops, then you know, that's what happened.

[00:01:10] Anyway, so the reason we are talking about this is that we've had a couple of requests over the last few months about people asking specifically, John, how do you plan for public exams?

[00:01:22] And these are from two newish exam officers.

[00:01:25] So going into their first public exam season next year.

[00:01:28] And they just wanted to know really what you actually do.

[00:01:31] Yeah.

[00:01:32] So we did an episode where we talked about how I sort of cope from a kind of physical, mental kind of point of view.

[00:01:38] But this is like much more practical.

[00:01:39] I think this is actually about the things, the steps that I take in planning for an exam season.

[00:01:47] Helpfully, I've come up with 10, which is a nice round number, isn't it?

[00:01:51] But they are kind of steps that I take to organise a public exam season.

[00:02:01] I guess the whole process probably takes about six months of planning.

[00:02:06] And obviously in between that as well, you're also planning alongside for like mock exams and things like that.

[00:02:11] So you've got this sort of dovetailing of different things that you're planning for.

[00:02:15] So what I'm going to do in this episode is just to focus on like the public exams and how I get from the very start,

[00:02:23] from nothing basically being there to being able to deliver an exam season.

[00:02:29] So, yeah, so it's about a six month sort of planning process.

[00:02:33] Presumably lots of people listening to this will run their exams in quite different ways.

[00:02:37] So it would be good to hear.

[00:02:38] I mean, I imagine there'll be a lot of, you know, things that are similar.

[00:02:42] But I imagine I'm going to annoy a few people here as well by the fact that I probably do certain things in a kind of idiosyncratic way.

[00:02:49] This is how you do it.

[00:02:50] This is not the gospel.

[00:02:51] And as ever, you can shout at me and tell me I'm doing it wrong if you want to.

[00:02:56] So, OK, so I'm going to start from the start.

[00:02:59] The good thing, just to interject, my podcast is that no one can shout at you.

[00:03:03] No, they can't.

[00:03:03] You have to email someone.

[00:03:05] Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:06] Which is, yeah.

[00:03:07] I mean, feel free to email if you are angry or if not, you know, if you're happy about it, let us know.

[00:03:14] Anyway, so, OK, so the first thing you have to do is you've got to create an exam season.

[00:03:21] So this is something, this is very technical.

[00:03:24] So this is something that you do with.

[00:03:25] This is all very technical.

[00:03:26] Yeah.

[00:03:27] This is something you do within your management information system.

[00:03:30] Now, I use SIMS, but there are other management information systems or MISs available.

[00:03:36] What is a management information system, John, for people who haven't had the fortune of using one yet?

[00:03:41] It's basically a massive piece of software and a database that includes all your information about all your students in your school

[00:03:52] and enables you to do different things, such as…

[00:03:57] And they all compete against each other.

[00:03:58] Yeah, such as, like, they do, like, timetabling.

[00:04:01] They'll do, like, behaviour management, monitor your attendance, help you plan your exams.

[00:04:06] So these big pieces of software and every school's got one.

[00:04:10] But they're kind of in competition.

[00:04:12] It's like management information system wars going on constantly.

[00:04:18] So, yeah, we're not going to get involved in that because it's ugly, man.

[00:04:21] It's ugly.

[00:04:22] I mean, it's really not.

[00:04:23] But anyway, go on, move on, move on.

[00:04:25] Okay, so you set up your season.

[00:04:27] So, for example, I just recently set up summer 2025 as an exam season.

[00:04:33] What do you do then?

[00:04:34] Put all year 11s in it, basically?

[00:04:35] Yeah, so you pull all your candidates, your prospective candidates, into it, into that season.

[00:04:40] You import them in.

[00:04:42] So, for me, that's all my year 11s.

[00:04:44] Not physically.

[00:04:45] You don't, not physically, no, digitally pull them in.

[00:04:49] Just a clarifying.

[00:04:49] And I'll be also probably pulling in year 10s as well because some of them will be doing home languages probably.

[00:04:59] And some of them might be doing some GCSEs a bit early.

[00:05:02] So it's good to have your year 10s in there as well.

[00:05:05] And then you need to check that they've all got a candidate number.

[00:05:08] And if they don't have a candidate number, you need to make sure that you assign them.

[00:05:11] Why wouldn't they have one?

[00:05:12] Because that's something you have to do.

[00:05:13] You have to sign it to them.

[00:05:14] So you've done it wrong.

[00:05:16] Within your MIS, you have to assign them candidate numbers.

[00:05:20] When do they get assigned candidates?

[00:05:21] Well, you can do it at any point, really.

[00:05:24] When do you do it?

[00:05:25] So I tend to do it when there might be.

[00:05:28] So if there are some students in a year group who need to sit exams, then I'll just assign the whole year group.

[00:05:33] Right.

[00:05:34] So like in the year 10?

[00:05:35] A candidate number.

[00:05:35] Yeah.

[00:05:35] So year 9, year 10, something like that.

[00:05:37] Normally they'll get their candidate numbers.

[00:05:40] Sometimes they do it earlier.

[00:05:41] Just depends how I'm feeling.

[00:05:44] So you assign them a four-digit candidate number, which is their candidate number within your exam centre.

[00:05:51] And then you also assign them something called a unique candidate identifier, a UCI number, which is their kind of unique number within the whole country.

[00:06:01] So they have a unique number within your centre, which is a four-digit number, and then a unique one within the whole country, which is their UCI number.

[00:06:09] And that's like a big, long number.

[00:06:12] So it's about, I don't know how many digits it is, about 14, something like that.

[00:06:16] God, this is technical.

[00:06:17] Yeah.

[00:06:19] So you've got your candidates in.

[00:06:21] And then the second thing you really need to do to create this season is download base data.

[00:06:26] Base data is information that comes from the exam boards.

[00:06:29] And it's basically a big list of all the qualifications that an exam board runs.

[00:06:34] And this, for the summer season, this gets released in November.

[00:06:37] So it's just recently been released.

[00:06:39] So people have been able to download their base data and get all the qualifications that they're running in their school into that exam season.

[00:06:49] So you can then start to make exam entries, which is step number two.

[00:06:54] Step number two is making entries.

[00:06:57] So this is where you're actually going to enter your students into the qualifications.

[00:07:02] Now, this has got a little bit easier because in the past...

[00:07:06] Your voice, sorry.

[00:07:06] Just your tone then suggests that this is going to be really exciting.

[00:07:09] Yeah, this is going to be quite exciting.

[00:07:11] Right.

[00:07:11] For me, it's very exciting.

[00:07:13] All of this is exciting.

[00:07:14] So this got a little bit easier, I think, in recent years because in the past, you had to enter students for every single individual exam that they did.

[00:07:26] But when we have modular exams and you could enter students into exams multiple times across different settings, you had to enter every student for every single individual exam.

[00:07:39] And that would take ages.

[00:07:41] Whereas now, because students do what are called linear qualifications, where they enter for all the exams at the end of the course, you just enter them for the qualification.

[00:07:51] And then it obviously then naturally assumes that the students will be entered for each exam that's associated with that qualification.

[00:07:58] So you just enter them for the qualification, which is quicker than having to enter them for every single individual exam.

[00:08:05] Yeah.

[00:08:06] So, yeah.

[00:08:08] So the way you make entries is you basically create these big mark sheets associated with each qualification.

[00:08:13] And then you put like a Y into the column for each student when they're going to be entered for that particular qualification.

[00:08:20] And then you, once you've done all your entries, that usually takes me like a few days to do that.

[00:08:28] You then submit them to the exam board.

[00:08:31] Now, there are some qualifications that it's a lot easier to enter students for.

[00:08:38] So, for example, something like business or something like drama, something like music, something like English.

[00:08:49] No, it's to do with whether or not there's foundation or higher.

[00:08:52] So if there's no foundation and higher split in a qualification, you can just enter the students.

[00:08:58] You know they're going to do it.

[00:08:59] So there's no issue.

[00:09:01] Foundation and higher makes it a bit more complicated.

[00:09:04] So in languages, in maths, in science, you enter students for either a foundation tier or a higher tier.

[00:09:11] And so I usually wait on those.

[00:09:14] So I've already done entries for quite a lot of subjects, but I haven't done them for those three sets of subjects because I don't know at this moment or and a lot of the time the teachers won't know at this moment which tier the student's going to sit.

[00:09:31] So we tend to wait a bit later for that.

[00:09:33] The entry deadline to put exam entries in is usually towards the end of February.

[00:09:39] So we've got until then to work it out.

[00:09:43] And you've just got to make sure that you hit that deadline.

[00:09:46] What happens if you don't hit the deadline then?

[00:09:48] So the deadlines are all around money.

[00:09:51] Yeah, I was going to say this all gets a bit pricey.

[00:09:52] So we've had this conversation, do you remember, before with exams officers.

[00:09:56] It's surprising to a lot of people who don't work in education or exams about how much this will cost.

[00:10:02] Yeah, so it's quite expensive.

[00:10:04] So if you get all your entries in by the February deadline.

[00:10:10] Which you must always do, John, surely.

[00:10:13] Oh, yeah, always.

[00:10:14] Yeah.

[00:10:15] Then you pay the flat, the normal fee.

[00:10:18] If you miss that February deadline, then any entry you make after that is…

[00:10:23] What's that on average to people who don't know?

[00:10:25] So it's about £50 for a GCSE entry.

[00:10:28] So if you're entering a student for one GCSE qualification, that's about £50 generally.

[00:10:33] And then if you miss it?

[00:10:34] If you miss it, if you miss the February deadline, it goes straight to double fees.

[00:10:39] So if it was a £50 entry, it would become £100.

[00:10:44] And then there is another deadline towards the end of April, I think it is, where if you are entering a student then for a GCSE qualification, it will cost you triple fees.

[00:10:56] So £150.

[00:10:59] And the invoices that come in will show whether or not this is a late fee or a double late fee.

[00:11:07] And so the people in finance will know if you have not done your entries or submitted your entries late.

[00:11:14] Obviously, there are some occasions when students get entered at the last minute.

[00:11:18] It has to be, yeah.

[00:11:18] You know, someone suddenly discovered that somebody speaks Urdu.

[00:11:23] It's not just that you forgot.

[00:11:23] And they're like, let's put them in.

[00:11:25] Yeah.

[00:11:25] And it's not your…

[00:11:27] That's not your fault.

[00:11:29] And so it does happen from time to time that late entries will occur, you know, for a specific reason.

[00:11:36] But yeah, the penalty, the financial penalties are immense.

[00:11:39] But it is particularly if it's like a cohort of kids, you know, a larger number.

[00:11:44] It's not just one or two.

[00:11:46] Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:46] If you miss GCSE science…

[00:11:49] Yeah, that's what I mean.

[00:11:50] …was I mean, then that's going to cost a huge amount of money.

[00:11:53] So one thing I recommend is obviously like have a tick-off list to make sure that you're like tracking whether or not you have entered, actually submitted the entries.

[00:12:05] Because that is probably the one thing that people worry about the most that will get you into the most difficulty if you don't do it.

[00:12:11] So yeah, so that's…

[00:12:13] Entries is obviously a big thing.

[00:12:15] And it's good to get it started early.

[00:12:18] If you can't do it yet, if you need to wait until after Christmas, that's fine.

[00:12:22] There's still plenty of time.

[00:12:23] So that's entries.

[00:12:25] So you get your entries in as far as you possibly can.

[00:12:29] And then the next thing you can do at that point then, you know which exams you're doing, which qualifications are being sat.

[00:12:38] So then you can draw up your timetable.

[00:12:41] If you have exam screen, you could have done that like at the beginning of the year anyway because we put our base data in like in September.

[00:12:49] Yeah.

[00:12:49] So you could have done that.

[00:12:51] But, you know, if you're smart enough to have exams screen, then you can do that.

[00:12:57] So you can draw up a timetable.

[00:12:59] You can share that with staff.

[00:13:00] You can publish it on the website.

[00:13:01] We'll publish that on the website.

[00:13:02] Because we'll get a lot of phone calls start from, you know, you'd be surprised from like October saying, what date is this exam on?

[00:13:09] You know, what time, what date is my child going to finish their exams and things like that?

[00:13:14] So people want to see the program of exams.

[00:13:18] And so you can build a timetable and you can put that on your website, publish it, which is great.

[00:13:24] The one thing that you won't be able to tell people at that point is where their students are going to be sitting their exams precisely.

[00:13:32] Yeah.

[00:13:33] Because that's a step further down the process where you actually start to allocate students to exams.

[00:13:41] So you know when all the exams are going to be now.

[00:13:45] So one thing that you can do then, step four, is that you can start to get your invigilators planned.

[00:13:53] So you can send something out to them which says, this is when all the exams are.

[00:13:57] Let me know when you're free, when you're available.

[00:14:00] Please all say that you're free and available for all sessions.

[00:14:03] The thing that will drive exams officers mad is the person who comes to you, says they want to be an invigilator.

[00:14:11] You go through a recruitment process, do everything.

[00:14:15] You're very excited.

[00:14:16] You send out your availability and they come back with like three dates in May or something like that.

[00:14:20] And you're like, why?

[00:14:22] Why have you done this if you're not available to work?

[00:14:26] So that's one thing that I know for a fact really irritates exams officers.

[00:14:31] Obviously with invigilators, it's a bit like the more the merrier.

[00:14:34] You know, like there's no, it never hurts to have people on board.

[00:14:36] But I think when you recruit people, you do hope that they're going to be.

[00:14:39] But if you're a bit low on numbers, you don't want somebody who's booked a holiday for the whole of May and June.

[00:14:41] No, exactly.

[00:14:42] Exactly.

[00:14:43] So, yeah.

[00:14:45] Yeah.

[00:14:45] So that's often a funny one.

[00:14:47] But you can start to get their availability in and start to see how it's looking for you.

[00:14:52] And obviously, if you do think that you need to recruit more people, then you'll need to go into that like fairly quickly.

[00:14:59] So you can get invigilator availability.

[00:15:02] Obviously, you want to set a pretty firm deadline for that to make sure that people get that in so that you're then in a position to be able to allocate as soon as you can.

[00:15:13] So then step number five, and this is probably the, well, I find this the most time consuming in the whole planning process.

[00:15:22] And it's probably the most tricky as well is seating candidates.

[00:15:26] So within your MIS system, there will be a facility where you can seat candidates.

[00:15:31] It's quite long and laborious.

[00:15:33] Does it look like when you try and book cinema tickets?

[00:15:36] Yes, it looks almost exactly like that.

[00:15:38] So you'll have an image of like a room with lots of different vacant spaces in it.

[00:15:43] But there's not like bath seats.

[00:15:45] And you then allocate.

[00:15:46] Well, it depends what you think.

[00:15:48] I mean, some kids really don't like sitting at the front.

[00:15:50] So for some reason.

[00:15:53] Funny thing that kids often say is I don't want to sit at the front because everyone's looking at me.

[00:15:57] Wait, so do they get a choice?

[00:15:58] And I'm always like, no, no, no.

[00:16:00] I don't give them a choice.

[00:16:02] I mean, some of them will be really insistent that they don't want to sit at the front or that they want to sit at the back.

[00:16:07] And yeah, and kids say it's because people will be looking at me.

[00:16:09] And I'm like, no one's looking at you.

[00:16:11] You're doing an exam.

[00:16:12] Like people are focused on what they're doing.

[00:16:14] Also, you shouldn't really be doing anything that's worth watching.

[00:16:17] No, exactly.

[00:16:18] Yeah.

[00:16:18] If you're sitting on an exam.

[00:16:19] Yeah.

[00:16:20] Anyway, anyway.

[00:16:21] So you start seating candidates.

[00:16:26] Obviously, then as well, you have to take into account the fact that some candidates will be sat in separate rooms.

[00:16:31] Some candidates will be sat in computer rooms.

[00:16:34] Some will be sat with your SEN team in very small rooms.

[00:16:38] So you have to do all of that.

[00:16:40] And of course, you're going to have, you know, quite a lot of exams.

[00:16:44] You've got about four and a half weeks worth of exams, probably, you know, two a day.

[00:16:49] So that's a lot of exams.

[00:16:51] And there's a lot of doing these seating arrangements.

[00:16:53] So I usually find that if I can sit down in a concentrated period of time without getting disturbed, that usually takes me about two to three days to get the seating done.

[00:17:04] Interesting thing as well, I think, is like the timing of doing the seating.

[00:17:08] So if you go too early on it, then you'll get so many changes that will become really frustrating.

[00:17:15] So you do it really early and then someone wants to change this and this and this and this.

[00:17:19] And you're moving candidates all over the place.

[00:17:21] It ends up becoming a massive headache.

[00:17:23] So you don't want to go too early on it.

[00:17:25] You want to make sure that all the arrangements are settled, all the access arrangements are settled and things like that.

[00:17:30] But then obviously, if you leave it too late, then, you know, you've got to allocate all your invigilators.

[00:17:36] You've got to send candidates their information.

[00:17:38] So you don't want to leave it too late either.

[00:17:40] So there is like a little sweet spot.

[00:17:42] I usually find sort of about the beginning of March sort of time is when I want to be doing that and starting to get information out to people in the sort of middle, middle to end of March.

[00:17:54] So, yeah.

[00:17:54] So you get your seating done.

[00:17:56] And then once you've done your seating and you know what all your venues are going to be, you can allocate your invigilators.

[00:18:04] So this is where you then go into the allocation process.

[00:18:08] And this is like my favourite bit of my job.

[00:18:13] This is how tragic I am.

[00:18:15] Yeah.

[00:18:15] This is my favourite bit.

[00:18:17] Like, because this is like a, this is an artistry allocating your invigilators.

[00:18:22] That is quite a grand statement.

[00:18:24] Yeah.

[00:18:24] Well, it's not.

[00:18:25] What it isn't is a science.

[00:18:27] It's a combination of like art and science.

[00:18:30] And it can't be automated.

[00:18:31] I don't think you, I wouldn't automate this process.

[00:18:34] Like, I think that because I think it, because it involves human beings.

[00:18:40] So there's lots of things I'm taking into account when I'm allocating invigilators.

[00:18:47] So the number of slots that you give people.

[00:18:50] So this is, this is a really tricky thing to work out.

[00:18:54] Well, to some extent.

[00:18:54] So, um, what, the first thing I'll do is do a rough allocation.

[00:18:59] So I'll go through and I'll, I'll, I'll think just in my head, try and make it as fair as possible.

[00:19:03] I'll bang people into different slots.

[00:19:05] And then because I'm an absolute nerd, what I do then is I do like a pivot table, which then tells me, which then tells me how many slots I've given to each invigilator.

[00:19:16] So I can see instantly.

[00:19:18] Why do you need a pivot table for that?

[00:19:19] Just a list?

[00:19:20] No, because it counts.

[00:19:21] The pivot table will count how many slots you've given to each invigilator.

[00:19:26] But you could just, anyway, go on.

[00:19:28] Your job, not mine.

[00:19:29] Okay.

[00:19:30] So, um, so, so then you can start to see instantly if you've sort of slightly over allocated somebody or under allocated them.

[00:19:37] And so you can start to shift things about, um, if you've done that.

[00:19:41] But, and also though, I try and keep, so, so one of the difficult things is like, what is a fair number to give people?

[00:19:50] So you can start to see, like, I, I've tended to find the last couple of years that about sort of 18 or 19 slots is like my bog standard for, for, you know, for like an invigilator who's available quite a lot.

[00:20:04] That will be about the number of slots that they get given.

[00:20:07] Where it gets trickier is where you've got someone who's not giving you that much availability.

[00:20:10] And what I tend to try and do with those people is that I'll probably give them as a proportion of the amount of availability they've given me slightly more.

[00:20:20] But I'm not going to give them everything that they've given me because that feels like I'm slightly punishing the people who have really good availability.

[00:20:28] So you also do it on, uh, experience.

[00:20:32] So numbers of lead invigilators, which exams are trickier generally to supervise?

[00:20:38] Yeah, so there'll be some invigilators who will get slightly more and they'll tend to be my lead invigilators, my very experienced invigilators.

[00:20:45] Or if I've got somebody who's doing something very specific.

[00:20:48] So you can go off and have a lay down during some of the exams.

[00:20:51] So I have one guy who does, um, computer rooms and he's like become a bit of an expert on just running the computer rooms and doing the setup for that.

[00:21:00] So, um, he will ordinarily get more slots because there's not that many people who can also do that.

[00:21:06] Yeah.

[00:21:07] Um, so I have maybe three or four in my team who can do it.

[00:21:10] He's really good at it.

[00:21:11] And then there are a few others who can do it as well.

[00:21:13] So he'll get a lot, a lot of slots.

[00:21:15] My lead invigilators will get a lot of slots.

[00:21:17] Um, so, um, yeah, so there's lots of things to kind of balance within it.

[00:21:23] Um, so that is, it's a real challenge that it's like a little puzzle.

[00:21:28] Um, so tragically, I really, really do enjoy.

[00:21:33] Okay.

[00:21:36] So you've allocated your invigilators.

[00:21:38] So now you've got all your seating arrangements.

[00:21:40] You've allocated your invigilators.

[00:21:42] So at that point I would update the timetable as well and put all the, the venues in, all the exam venues in.

[00:21:48] Uh, and then we can republish the timetable, um, with all that information.

[00:21:52] So it's now complete.

[00:21:54] So everybody can see what rooms are going to be used.

[00:21:57] Um, uh, and, uh, and that kind of thing.

[00:22:01] Um, so this is now a good point where you've basically completed most of the planning process

[00:22:08] that you can now start to share information to candidates.

[00:22:11] So I would now give them a, um, completed timetable with all their venues on.

[00:22:17] Just as a quick aside, right back where you do the entries, step two,

[00:22:22] you can also issue a timetable to candidates at that point.

[00:22:26] It won't have any of their venues on, but it will have all their exams on it with the dates on.

[00:22:30] So, and a lot of schools do do that.

[00:22:33] Yeah, it makes sense.

[00:22:34] Yeah.

[00:22:34] That's the key.

[00:22:35] It's quite a good thing to do because, um, if there are any mistakes, candidates will let you know.

[00:22:41] So they'll let you know, oh, I've been entered for this and I shouldn't have been,

[00:22:44] or I haven't been entered for this.

[00:22:45] And it's a good way of, yeah, it's a good way of, of getting feedback on your entries

[00:22:50] so that you know if you've missed something and things like that.

[00:22:52] So from that point of view, I think it's, it's a really good idea.

[00:22:55] And also I think for the candidates, it's really good to know that far in advance.

[00:22:59] Like, you know, this is, these are the days, these are the big days.

[00:23:03] This is, this is what's coming down the line.

[00:23:05] Um, so, um, yeah, so you can give all the information.

[00:23:10] There's also a lot of information that you have to give them,

[00:23:13] that JCQ requires you to give them about the processes around exams as well.

[00:23:18] So this is a good opportunity.

[00:23:22] You can send it out sort of multiple times during the year.

[00:23:24] Sometimes you can send it out when your mock exams happen,

[00:23:27] but this is a good time as well.

[00:23:29] Do you just give them all this information about, you know, about exams?

[00:23:32] This is, this is all the stuff you need to know.

[00:23:34] Here's your timetable.

[00:23:35] And also here's all this information about JCQ,

[00:23:38] about the rules and things you have to follow, um, and things like that.

[00:23:41] So that is, uh, that was step number eight.

[00:23:45] Gosh, we've got, we're, we're cracking on here.

[00:23:47] Um, so, it really does.

[00:23:50] So, uh, step number nine is where I would do,

[00:23:55] and this is probably, you're probably getting like a couple of weeks before the exam start here.

[00:23:59] Um, I would do all my pre-exam admin at this point.

[00:24:04] So there's a number of things you have to do here.

[00:24:06] Is this like when you start to get really stressed?

[00:24:08] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:24:09] This, and this, this stuff, I don't find that fun.

[00:24:11] So one of the things I will, um, have to do is re-rooming.

[00:24:17] So some people might have someone else in the school who does this for them, but I do it myself.

[00:24:23] Um, so basically what we tend to do is select a set of classrooms that we want to use for exams

[00:24:29] because they're isolated.

[00:24:31] They're in a good spot in the school for running exams.

[00:24:33] And it doesn't matter what lessons are timetabled in there.

[00:24:36] We will just move whatever's in there, move them out somewhere else.

[00:24:39] But that is a big job.

[00:24:41] So the classrooms that we've selected.

[00:24:43] But during public, I mean, that's a nightmare during mocks, isn't it?

[00:24:46] Because everything's running.

[00:24:48] But public exams surely take.

[00:24:49] So during mocks, we tend, I tend not to select those rooms.

[00:24:54] So I tend to use what's available during mocks, um, which sometimes means compromising a little

[00:24:59] bit on what would be ideal.

[00:25:01] Um, but during the public exams, we don't do that.

[00:25:03] We've got a particular set of classrooms that we use, uh, but they are classrooms that are

[00:25:08] heavily used, you know, by the school generally.

[00:25:12] So that's a lot of re-rooming.

[00:25:14] So I'm re-rooming several classes every single day.

[00:25:17] This must vary so much across schools.

[00:25:19] Yeah.

[00:25:19] So some schools will have lots of...

[00:25:21] Some schools are like yours where it's really quite complex.

[00:25:24] Yeah.

[00:25:24] Um, a lot, there's not, yeah, many free rooms, but other schools will have that luxury.

[00:25:30] So it's quite different, isn't it?

[00:25:31] It can be quite different.

[00:25:33] And it's probably, yeah, it's probably one of the more complex bits.

[00:25:36] It's also one of the bits where you're likely to get on people's nerves as well.

[00:25:39] Yeah.

[00:25:40] Because you're moving people's classrooms.

[00:25:41] With everyone matters, isn't it?

[00:25:42] Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:43] You're moving people's classrooms around all the time.

[00:25:45] You can't like suddenly just turn around in like April and be like, hi, I've never spoken

[00:25:48] to you before.

[00:25:49] Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:49] I don't know you, but I'm going to kick you out of your room like continuously for the

[00:25:53] next four weeks or whatever.

[00:25:55] That's another thing that's difficult if you're using the same classrooms is you will

[00:25:59] often be hitting the same teachers.

[00:26:01] So the block of classrooms we use is in our languages department.

[00:26:05] And so I'm often, it's often the same teachers that are being affected by it.

[00:26:11] But, you know, in our school, they take it very well.

[00:26:15] Everyone's very helpful.

[00:26:16] Just being used to it.

[00:26:16] Yeah, yeah.

[00:26:18] Which is good.

[00:26:19] Which is good.

[00:26:19] So got to do re-rooming.

[00:26:21] I got to notify the attendance team about, you know, which students will be going into

[00:26:28] which exam so that they can get all their attendance stuff sorted in advance.

[00:26:33] I will put together as well for the SEND team.

[00:26:37] I will do their access arrangements list so that they can allocate TAs and people to

[00:26:43] support in exams.

[00:26:45] So they obviously do all the stuff around awarding access arrangements to students.

[00:26:51] But then when it comes to actually seating them and putting them into a program for their

[00:26:56] exams, then I'll do that and then share it with them.

[00:26:58] Is that commonplace?

[00:26:59] And then they allocate the TAs.

[00:27:00] Yeah, I would say so.

[00:27:02] Yeah, there's no other real way of doing it, I don't think.

[00:27:05] That's a big job though, isn't it?

[00:27:07] Yeah, yeah, that is.

[00:27:08] That is a big job.

[00:27:10] And then some other things that you'll need to do.

[00:27:12] So putting together packs for invigilators so that they've got everything that they need

[00:27:16] when they come in and they go off to their rooms to make sure that they've got everything

[00:27:20] they need.

[00:27:23] And we put a card on each student's desk, which has like photo ID and information about them,

[00:27:31] the candidate number and things like that.

[00:27:32] So you need to make sure that all that stuff is in place.

[00:27:36] Policies.

[00:27:37] So when you get inspected, they check your policies.

[00:27:42] So we have to have certain policies around, for example, contingency, policies around exams

[00:27:52] appeals, policies around inclusion and disability and all sorts of things we have to have ready

[00:27:59] for the inspector when they come in.

[00:28:01] So you need to make sure that those are done and up to date.

[00:28:06] You have going to have stuff that you're going to put on the notice board.

[00:28:09] So I'm making sure I'm printing stuff off in advance for every day so that it can be put

[00:28:14] up there on the notice board.

[00:28:17] So there's all this kind of paperwork as well in advance that you have to do.

[00:28:21] And I think it's really good to get ahead of that stuff because there's enough to do

[00:28:26] on an exam day that you don't want to be necessarily like printing off loads of stuff

[00:28:31] as well.

[00:28:32] You want to do the stuff that you can do in advance.

[00:28:34] You want to try and get as much of that done as possible.

[00:28:40] And that's it.

[00:28:40] And step 10, the last one I've got here.

[00:28:42] So you've got to your exams now.

[00:28:44] You've got everything prepared.

[00:28:45] You're ready to go.

[00:28:46] And step 10 is just about daily communication.

[00:28:51] So making sure that you are notifying everyone what's happening today.

[00:28:57] So either do that first thing in the morning or maybe even the night before.

[00:29:00] So I send an email to all staff.

[00:29:02] So it's got what the exams are for the day, what the rooms are that are being used, any

[00:29:07] re-rooming and who's affected.

[00:29:10] That's all on the email as well.

[00:29:12] And that just goes out every day.

[00:29:13] To all staff.

[00:29:14] To all staff.

[00:29:15] I send it first thing in the morning.

[00:29:17] I usually prep it the night before so that all I have to do in the morning is get in,

[00:29:21] just click a button and it's gone.

[00:29:24] But I think that sort of having that daily communication with everyone is a real help.

[00:29:29] And also it means that you can never be accused of not having told people what was going on.

[00:29:35] So that's a big one as well.

[00:29:37] So yeah.

[00:29:38] So that's it.

[00:29:38] 10 steps.

[00:29:40] Do you want me to summarise them?

[00:29:41] On that last one, while we're there, is Kirsty of the Cheerwool School.

[00:29:47] She did a wrap-up, didn't she, at the end of every day?

[00:29:50] Yeah.

[00:29:50] Like an email bulletin.

[00:29:51] Yeah, like a blog.

[00:29:52] Yeah, which I thought was really interesting.

[00:29:54] Yeah, yeah.

[00:29:54] You should do that maybe, John.

[00:29:56] It's a good suggestion.

[00:29:58] Yeah.

[00:29:58] That's a nice suggestion.

[00:29:59] Yeah, yeah.

[00:30:00] She's maybe a bit more conscientious than I am.

[00:30:05] But yeah, it's a nice idea.

[00:30:06] I think the more you can communicate about what's going on, I think it's always going to be helpful.

[00:30:11] Um, and, um, yeah.

[00:30:14] So I'm just going to run through what those steps are just really quickly.

[00:30:17] The 10, the 10 steps to success.

[00:30:20] So number one, create your season.

[00:30:23] Number two, make entries.

[00:30:24] Number three, draw up your timetable.

[00:30:26] Number four, get your invigilator availability.

[00:30:30] Number five, seat your candidates.

[00:30:32] Number six, allocate invigilators.

[00:30:35] Number seven, update your timetable and republish.

[00:30:39] Number eight, send information to candidates.

[00:30:43] Number nine, do all your pre-exam admin.

[00:30:46] And number 10, get your communication ready for daily updates to all your staff.

[00:30:54] Beautiful.

[00:30:55] Thanks, John.

[00:30:56] No problem.

[00:31:01] Thank you so much for listening to the Exam Man podcast.

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