The senior leader with responsibility for line managing an exams officer should arrange meetings on a regular basis to ensure that the exams officer is being effectively line managed, supported and supervised
The content of the meetings will vary depending on the level of experience of your exams officer:
New exams officers (new to the role)
If your exams officer is new to the role, meetings should be held on a more regular basis (weekly/fortnightly) during the early weeks/months of their appointment and at key points during the exam cycle which includes:
- Information gathering ahead of submitting exam entries
- Submitting exam entries
- Preparing for an exam series which includes arranging rooming, timetabling, seating plans, the receipt of confidential examination materials etc
- Preparing for results day(s). This will include the requirements associated with the restricted release of results and managing the post-results services process
During exam time it is strongly advised that a weekly meeting is held to discuss any issues which may have occurred and to answer any questions/resolve issues:
- Exams weekly report form template
This regularity of meetings may be reduced at other times during the academic year.
New exams officers (new to your centre)
If your exams officer is new to your centre but has previously undertaken the exams officer role at another centre, regular meetings should be held until they have completed your centre induction, and they are familiar with exam-related specific ways of working within your centre. This may include qualifications which they have not previously administered or a Management Information System (MIS) which is unfamiliar.
Experienced exams officers
Even though your exams officer may have successfully performed the role across several exam series, it is still imperative that they have access to regular meetings, for example, on a monthly or half-termly basis.
These meetings will provide reassurance for you, as their line manager, that all tasks have been completed successfully and to deadline, and for your exams officer to highlight areas of strength/need of improvement, and to acquire answers to any questions they may have.
The content of these meetings should also include progress against targets, including achievement of the Exams Officer Professional Standards.
During an exam series
Short meetings should take place on a weekly basis to discuss any issues which may have occurred, or to review exam room incident logs to highlight/discuss/resolve incidents which have occurred in the exam room.
Checklist/meeting agendas
The Checklist for senior leaders/line managers encourages a meeting to take place between the line manager and exams officers at the start and end of each stage of the exam cycle. This enables both parties to highlight tasks which need to be completed, any potential issues, support which will be required from the line manager and to review that all actions have been completed, before moving onto the next stage of the exam cycle.
If meetings are to be held on a monthly basis, the following meeting agenda templates are available for senior leaders/line managers to utilise:
Templates for meetings taking place between September and February will be published in July.
Before utilising these templates, please note that:
- These templates have been created in Microsoft Word format to allow for rows/text to be added/removed
- For more information on the actions listed in each template, see The Exams Office Monthly Support Guides which are available from The Exams Office Hub
- The areas listed in each template are taken from the exam cycle. Delete any areas which do not apply to examination/assessment activity within your centre
- Add any centre-specific tasks to the template (e.g. other tests/assessments (Years 7-10, CATs, Yellis, University Admission Tests, mock examinations), Training requirements/events, CPD, annual appraisal target setting/progress etc.)