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Exams Officer of the Year

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for the 2024/2025 Exams Officer Professional Standards

NAEO Exams Officer of the Year 2025

In 2024/25, over 300 nominations were received for the award, from which a shortlist of ten exams officers (see below) were presented to a panel of awarding body representatives for consideration against the criteria detailed. Here are details of our winner, runners up and those shortlisted in 2024/25.

The winner of the 2025 award:

Sarah Lake - Sibford School, Banbury

The runners up in 2025:

Helen Burrows - Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge

Stuart Willis - Upper Wharfedale School, North Yorkshire

2025 nominations and shortlist

The shortlist of ten finalists for the 2025 award was:

Alex Wyatt (St. John's Marlborough)
Alexis Cheneau-Chateau (The Aquila School, Dubai)
Emma King (King's Academy, Ringmer)
Helen Burrows (Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge)
Jamie David (Carrington School, Redhill)
Samantha Edwards (Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Brixham)
Sarah Adamson (Parklands High School, Chorley)
Sarah Lake (Sibford School, Banbury)
Scott Moore (King's College International School, Bangkok)
Stuart Willis (Upper Wharfedale School, North Yorkshire)

At our Summer 2025 Conference, held at the Oval Cricket Ground, London on 30 June, Sarah Lake was announced as the Exams Officer of the Year for 2025.

Sarah, who serves as exams officer at the Sibford School, Banbury, was presented with her certificate, and £500 of gift vouchers, by Jugjit Chima, CEO of the National Association of Examinations Officers at the Summer 2025 conference.

Sibford School is a co-educational independent school in Sibford Ferris, west of Banbury in North Oxfordshire.

Helen Burrows, exams officer at Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge and Stuart Willis, exams officer at Upper Wharfedale School, North Yorkshire were announced as runners-up.

Jugjit presents Sarah with the Exams Officer of the Year 2025 award

Jugjit pictured with Helen who was selected as runner up

Jugjit pictured with Stuart who was selected as runner up

Jugjit presents Alexis Cheneau-Chateau with the Overseas/International Exams Officer of the Year award

Exams Officer of the Year - Previous winners

2025: Sarah Lake (Sibford School, Sibford Ferris, North Oxfordshire)
2024: Kirsty Wilson (The Cherwell School, Oxford)
2023: Christos Christofi (St. John's School, Cyprus)
2022: Anjali Manek (Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, Middlesex)

NAEO Exams Officer of the Year

One of the NAEO’s key aims is to recognise excellence, dedication and commitment to the exams officer role. Fundamental to this is our annual Exams Officer of the Year Award.

Our Exams Officer of the Year Award, introduced to honour achievement, and raise the profile of examinations officers, is now in its fourth year!

The nomination window for The Exams Officer of the Year Award 2026 will open on 1 March 2026. The awards ceremony will take place at the NAEO Summer Conference.

Nominees for the award must have delivered excellence in their role. Achievement of, or working towards the Exams Officer Professional Standards, underpins the Exams Officer of the Year Award. Working towards, or completion of, the Standards in is an advantage to a nomination.

The annual award is designed to recognise exams officers who have delivered excellence in their role in one or more areas, for example within your centre, or within the wider exams community.

Who can make a nomination?

Nominations can be made by a peer, colleague or senior leader who has a working relationship with the nominee.

There is no limit on the number of forms which can be submitted for one nominee by colleagues/peers and can be from within or outside the nominee's centre.

As well as the nominee's line manager/members of senior leadership team, nominations are encouraged from any colleagues within the nominee's centre - this may include the special educational needs co-ordinator, a head of year, invigilators, etc.

Nominations from exams officers/colleagues outside of the nominee's centre are also encouraged to evidence the positive influence and/or the wider impact of the nominee's work. This may include members of network groups, local exams officers who have received support from the nominee, or colleagues within an academy trust/partner schools where support has been delivered.

The Exams Officer of the Year Framework

For the judges to make informed decisions we need examples of how your colleague has delivered excellence, so we have created a framework of categories, and questions, to help you tell us about your nominee.

We have suggested three categories: Impact, Support and Innovation.

Please feel free to give evidence in as many categories as you wish. The more details you can give, the better we can understand the achievement your exams officer has made in the exams community. There is also the option to give your Own Evidence if the categories we have chosen do not cover everything that you want to say.

Here are some suggestions on how ‘excellence’ can be defined:

Impact: Demonstrating positive change within centre or beyond.

Enhancing the reputation of exams within your centre:

What positive impact has your exams officer made on your centre community? Please give an example
How has your exams officer supported other staff within your centre’s community?
How has your exams officer increased the profile of exams within your centre?
How has your exams officer fostered a good working environment?

Supporting exams colleagues in the wider community:

Has your exams officer supported other exams officers in your local area? How have they done this?
Has your exams officer worked to support the exams community at a wider level? What have they done?

And/or

Innovation: Devising innovative processes which promote efficiency and effectiveness and/or creating procedures which guarantee the integrity and security of the examination system, and a 'level playing field' for candidates, within their centre:

Has your exams officer made a positive change on the delivery of exams in your centre? Please explain how they have achieved this.
Has your exams officer worked to develop new methods of working to enhance efficiency? Please give examples.
How has your exams officer improved the integrity and security of exams within your centre? Please give examples.

And/or

Support: Having a positive influence amongst others:

How has your exams officer worked empathetically with students in your centre? Please give examples.
How do they deal with exam anxiety within your student community?
How has your exams officer supported students with additional requirements, or differences?
How has your exams officer supported parents in this process?
How has your exams officer raised the profile of exams with students in your centre? How has this improved the exams office’s visibility, for example an open-door policy or via poster displays, assemblies or parents’ evenings?

And/or

Own Evidence: other evidence that you feel demonstrates excellence but is not captured in the categories of Impact, Innovation or Support.

The Judges

All nominations are reviewed by the Nominations Team at the NAEO and a short-list has been created for consideration by our expert judges. Our judging panel is made up of representatives from key stakeholders including the exam awarding bodies. The judging panel will agree upon the overall winner and runners up who will be contacted once the judging has been completed.

Prize Winners

Our prize winners will be awarded with their prize(s) and presented with a Certificate of Achievement, to mark their continuing professional development, at our National Summer Conference.

Prize winners will also be invited to participate in voluntary NAEO initiatives and contribute to, JCQ and awarding organisation, focus groups across the forthcoming academic year:

Exams Officer of the Year - Certificate + £500 gift voucher
Runners-up (2nd place) - Certificate + £250 gift voucher
Runners-up (3rd place) - Certificate + £125 gift voucher

Thank you for taking the time and effort to recognise your colleague and to help raise the profile of examinations officers.

We would also like to thank The Exams Office for supporting our Rewards and Awards programme by supplying all prizes and awards.

If you have any queries, questions or feedback on the Exams Officer of the Year process, please email nominations@thenaeo.org