On 8 January, the Department for Education announced the national pilot roll out of the Education Record app. Shortly afterwards, the NAEO began receiving messages from exams officers who had unexpectedly been given responsibility for delivering the initiative in their centres.
The NAEO fully supports the introduction of the Education Record app. The initiative not only helps students transition from Key Stage 4 to Key Stage 5 by giving them secure, digital access to their education records, but also reduces the administrative burden on exams officers, who would otherwise need to share exam information with Sixth Form and Further Education colleagues after results are published.
However, to ensure the Education Record app is introduced effectively, the NAEO strongly believes that exams officers should not be involved in the process to recognise/vouch for students which enables them to have access to the app.
Key tasks and responsibilities
There are series of tasks which must be undertaken to enable students to have access to the app, these include:
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Task
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Responsibility (suggested)
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Read and understand the DfE guidance
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Head of centre/Senior leader(s)
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If not already done so, create DfE Sign-in account
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Head of centre/Senior leader
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Create accounts for relevant staff members within DfE Sign-in
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Head of centre/Senior leader
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Give access permission to relevant staff members to relevant staff members to Issue education records in the data issuer role
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Head of centre/Senior leader/Head of Year
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Divide students into groups
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Senior leader/Head of Year
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Assign members of staff to groups (e.g. a form group)
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Senior leader/Head of Year
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Add/remove students from groups
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Senior leader/Head of Year
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Ask students to download the Education Record app
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Senior leader/Head of Year/Form Tutor/Subject staff
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Select students to vouch for from the student list in Issue Education Records
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Form Tutor/Subject staff
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Recognise/vouch for students (confirm that it is the same student that has been selected from the list)
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Form Tutor/Subject staff
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Generate QR code for student to scan
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Form Tutor/Subject staff
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Deal with errors within a student’s Education Record (e.g. missing or unexpected qualification)
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Form Tutor/Subject staff (The member of staff who recognised/vouched for the student and generated the QR code
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Recognising/vouching for students
Centres should identify staff who can vouch for student identities. This must be someone who knows the student well enough to recognise them on sight. During the pilot, this role was usually carried out by form tutors or other teaching staff.
Staff who can view a student’s photo - for example, through the centre’s management information system - may also carry out this task. In a small number of cases, such as centres with very few students, an exams officer may vouch for a student. However, in most situations, exams officers are not expected to take on this role.
Exams officers
The NAEO’s position is clear: to ensure Education Records are created accurately, exams officers should not be responsible for vouching for students.
If students have issues or questions about the information in their record, they should contact the member of staff who generated the QR code used to issue their record in the app. In most cases, this means queries should be directed to the form tutor or head of year.
If this member of staff requires support, they should submit an enquiry via the Customer Help Portal.
Conclusion
Several exams officers have reported being asked to help create or issue Education Records. However, because this process requires a staff member who can vouch for a student’s identity - meaning they know the student well enough to recognise them on sight - exams officers should not carry out this task if they cannot confidently confirm a student’s identity.
Centres must ensure that each Education Record is created accurately and that the process prevents errors, including cases of impersonation or mistakes that could assign a record to the wrong student. For this reason, a form tutor or other appropriate member of staff, such as subject staff, should be responsible for vouching for each student.