01 Mar 2023
Centres must be aware of the information which must be provided to candidates, staff and parents in relation to the summer exam series.
In this article, we consider not only the information which must be provided ahead of the exam series, but also how this should be disseminated.
Candidates
In addition to examination entry information (including dates and times of examinations), there is a significant amount of information which centres need to share with candidates. This includes:
- JCQ Information for candidates documents (coursework, non-examination assessments, on-screen tests, social media, privacy notice and written examinations)
These documents must be distributed to candidates before exams and/or assessments take place. This information can be distributed to candidates either electronically or in hard copy format or placed on the centre’s website with the respective link e-mailed to candidates. Following this, a briefing session or assembly should take place to reinforce what candidates must/must not do during, and in relation to, examinations and assessments.
- JCQ Unauthorised items poster & JCQ Warning to candidates poster
In addition to these posters being displayed in a prominent place for all candidates to see prior to entering the examination room, candidates must be made aware of the contents of these posters before exams and/or assessments take place.
- Written internal appeals procedures (relating to internal assessment decisions and post-results services and appeals)
Details of the centre’s procedures must be made widely available and accessible to all candidates. These may be placed on the centre’s website or alternatively candidate’s may be informed that these procedures are available upon request.
- Contingency plans for any disruption to examinations
It is important to ensure that candidates are aware of the arrangements should disruption occur. Centres will also need to define ‘disruption’, which may include the centre being unavailable on an exam day(s).
- Written procedures for dealing with candidates’ requests for post-results services
Candidates must be provided with information relating to the arrangements which are available to them following the receipt of their results, and the procedure for accessing the various post-results services.
Candidates must be made aware of the arrangements for post-results services before results are issued.
- Availability of senior members of centre staff immediately after the publication of results
Although the exams officer is responsible for ensuring that candidates receive their results, it is not their repsonsibility to provide academic or pastoral support. Therefore, it is a requirment that senior members of centre staff are accessible to candidates so that results may be discussed and decisions made on the submission of reviews of marking.
Candidates must be informed of the periods during which centre staff will be available so that they may plan accordingly.
Relevant centre policies
There are several centre policies which should be highlighted to candidates, not only to ensure that there are clear over arrangements for their examinations, but also to ‘protect’ the centre in the event of a dispute. These policies include the following which are required for JCQ inspection purposes:
- Dealing with an emergency evacuation of the examination room
- The use of word processors (for those candidates who will be using a word processor during their examinations and assessments)
…and the following optional policies, if they exist within your centre:
- Absence on the day of the exam
- Late arrival for an exam
- Food and drink in the exam room
- Leaving the examination room
- Managing behaviour/bad behaviour
- Separate invigilation/rooming (particularly if centres believe that this will be an issue this summer)
It is recommeded that these policies are added to the centre’s website and highlighted to candidates.
Additional information for candidates
Candidates will also need to be informed of a range of additional information which will include:
- Support materials and how these should be used during an examination – including formulae sheet (GCSE Maths) and revised equations sheet (GCSE Physics and Combined Science)
- Access arrangements (if applicable) and how it/these will be applied during the exam/assessment
- Candidate number
- Exam timetable and exam start times
- Exam seating information
- Identification requirements
- Instructions for personal belongings
- What to bring for an exam – authorised and unauthorised material
- What to do if they are late for an exam
- What to do in the event of absence/illness on an exam day
- Role of the invigilator
- Malpractice warnings and indicative sanctions
- Summer 2023 contingency days – candidates must be made aware of the arrangements and be encouraged to remain available up to and including the last contingency day (28 June 2023)
How to disseminate exams-related information
The extensive range of information which must be provided to candidates must be provided well ahead of the exams series and via a variety of channels. Below are suggestions on how this information can be disseminated…and reinforced, if required, on more than one occasion:
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Method
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Information
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Whole year assembly/briefing
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As this will be a ‘time-limited’ opportunity of approximately 15/20 minutes, it could be utilised to disseminate and highlight key information, including:
- To emphasise JCQ requirements, as detailed in their Instructions for conducting examinations publication Appendix 5: Information for candidates for written examinations, students could view The Exams Office Instructions for Candidates video - see https://youtu.be/sifbrx9_do4. The delivery of the video may also be supported by the use of the Instructions for Candidates Briefing (a template is available on The Exams Office website)
- Exam day information, for example:
- Acquiring and checking candidate timetables and instructions for resolved timetable clashes
- Specific centre instructions (e.g. arrival/start times, seating arrangements, drink bottles)
- Authorised and unauthorised equipment (e.g. black pen, pencil cases, calculators)
- Regulations, for example:
- Exam room conditions (highlight the JCQ Warning to Candidates and Unauthorised items posters)
- Role of the invigilator
- Examples of malpractice and indicative sanctions (e.g. mobile phones, watches)
- Other key information, for example
- What candidates should do if they are late for an exam
- What candidates should do if they feel ill on the day of the exam
- Instructions in the event of an emergency evacuation of the exam room
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During class/teaching time (via subject teachers)
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Subject staff should be expected to highlight and explain subject specific information and answer candidates’ questions. This may include:
- Maths teacher explaining which calculators are/are not permissible
- Exam materials permitted in each examination (e.g. writing in black ink, that highlighters/gel pens cannot be used in candidates’ answers, any additional materials which may be permitted in the exam room (e.g. anthologies, set texts)
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During form/pastoral time
(via Head of Year/Form tutor)
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This is an opportunity to focus upon information which is specific to each candidate, or information which a candidate may need to refer to during the exams series. This may include:
- Exam timetable and exam start times
- Exam seating information
- Identification requirements
- Instructions for personal belongings
- What to bring for an exam – authorised and unauthorised materials
- What to do if they are late for an exam
- What to do in the event of absence/illness on an exam day
- Role of the invigilator
- Malpractice warnings and indicative sanctions
- Summer 2023 contingency days – candidates must be made aware of the arrangements and be encouraged to remain available up to and including the last contingency day (28 June 2023)
The above information may also be presented via a Candidate Exam Handbook (a template is available on The Exams Office website)
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Centre website
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Depending on the what can be included on the centre’s website, as much of the information listed above should be added as well as the following:
- All relevant exam-related poilicies
- Contact details of key staff (including the Exams Officer) in the event of an emergency
- Contingency plans in event of disruption which prevent the centre from opening for scheduled examinations
- A copy of the Candidate Exam Handbook (if which may contain all, or some, of the information disseminated during class and form time
- A copy of each of the relevant JCQ Information for candidates documents, the respective link and an appropriately worded message
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Hard copy (e.g. Candidate Exam Handbook)
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This can be disseminated in hard copy or electronic format and after a classroom and/or form session. It may include some/all of the following information - and any centre specific information:
- Exam timetable and exam start times
- Exam seating information
- Identification requirements
- Instructions for personal belongings
- What to bring for an exam – authorised and unauthorised material
- What to do if they are late for an exam
- Role of the invigilator
- Malpractice warnings and indicative sanctions
- What to do in the event of absence/illness on an exam day
- Summer 2023 contingency days – candidates must be made aware of the arrangements and be encouraged to remain available up to and including the last contingency day (28 June 2023)
(A Candidate Exam Handbook template is available on The Exams Office website)
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Other (e.g. newsletter, parents’s evening
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Other methods of contact with candidates and their parents/carers may also be utilised to share information – particularly that which should be reinforced by parents/carers. This may include:
- Malpractice warnings and indicative sanctions – particularly involving the possession of a mobile phone
- What to bring for an exam – authorised and unauthorised materials
- The centre policy on late arrival/the process to follow if a candidate believes they will be late for an examination
- Role of the invigilator
- What to do in the event of absence/illness on an exam day
- Summer 2023 contingency days – candidates must be made aware of the arrangements and be encouraged to remain available up to and including the last contingency day (28 June 2023)
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How to confirm that exam-related information has been received by candidates
Once candidates have received the information listed above – particularly that which is required by JCQ – it is recommended that centres have a process in place to confirm that all candidates have received and understood the JCQ information and centre-specific exam guidance. The Exams Office provides a Candidate Declaration/Confirmation form template which can be used for this purpose.
This form may be significant in the event of suspected or actual malpractice where a candidate claims that they were not provided with the relevant information ahead of the exams series.
Teaching staff
Not only should teaching staff be involved in informing candidates of the examination requirements (see above), but they will also need to receive information relating to the exams series. This includes:
Exams officers should confirm when teaching staff should expect to receive question papers following the completion of the examination in their subject. JCQ regulations state that:
Question papers must not be released to centre personnel until after the awarding body’s published finishing time for the examination or, in the case of a timetable variation, until all candidates within the centre have completed the examination.
For CCEA examinations, question papers must not be released until 24 hours after the published finishing time for the examination.
However, an exams officer may decide to release question papers at another time to teaching staff (as long as this is after all candidates within their centre have completed the examination) and must inform teaching staff of their decision. The most common ‘release times’ to teaching staff, in addition to the regulations, are:
- The next day
- 24 hours after the published finishing time for the examination
- Once all scripts have been packaged, ready for dispatch
- Once all scripts have been dispatched
It must be highighted to teaching staff that they should not approach invigilators at the end of the examination for a copy of examination paper
- Notice to Centres – The people present in the examination room
This notice must be brought to the attention of all members of centre staff so that they are clear about who is allowed to be present in the examination room, how this permission is granted, and the role which they must undertake (and what they are not permitted to do) in the exam room.
- Post-results process, including the published deadlines for clerical re-checks, reviews of marking and reviews of moderation
Relevant centre staff must be made fully aware of their role and responsibilities in supporting candidates once results have been published and the advice and guidance which they must provide in relation to post-results services.
Parents/Carers
Although there is a JCQ requirement is to draw the attention of parents/carers to a written internal appeals procedure to manage disputes when a candidate disagrees with a centre decision not to support an online application for a clerical re-check, a review of marking, and a review of moderation or an appeal, it is strongly recommended that they are also made aware of what is expected of candidates before, during and after an examination. This may be particularly useful in reinforcing expectation, if:
- A candidate has a history of poor attendance/late arrival
- A candidate has engaged in poor behaviour which may be repeated during the examination
- A candidate failed to meet JCQ regulations during mock examinations
- A candidate may require support in attending the examination, or bringing the necessary equipment on each exam day
- A candidate has an access arrangement for which the regulations should be clarified (e.g. being allowed to leave before the end of the allotted extra time)
- The centre suspects that the candidate/parents/carers may question the centre’s decision, or JCQ regulations, during or after the exams series
- The centre suspects that candidates may ignore warnings relating to the introduction of unathorised materials in the exam room (e.g. mobile phone, watch)
Another aspect of the regulations which all parents/carers should be made aware of are contingency days. They should be aware that all candidates are expected to be available for the two contingency sessions taking place on the afternoons of the 8 and 15 June and to remain available up to and including the last contingency day (28 June 2023). These contingency days are designed to be used in the event of national or significant local disruption to examinations. Naturally, once a candidate has completed all their examinations, there is no requirement for them to be available for any later contingency day/session.