With the start of the summer exam series barely three months away, one of the major tasks facing exams officers is to ensure that their invigilation team is fully prepared to deal with every eventuality during the conducting of examinations.
When it comes to invigilators there is no doubt that this is one aspect of the exams officer role where an individual is required to display the skills relating to people management.
Prior to the start of the exam series, exams officers will be required to undertake the following in relation to their invigilators:
Assess…and possibly recruit
The first task is to assess the existing number of invigilators and confirm whether they want to invigilate during the forthcoming summer series.
Depending on the number of invigilators you have at your disposal, and the number you will require to meet candidate and rooming requirements during each session of the exam series, you may need to undertake a recruitment campaign.
You should also consider the number of male and female invigilators and ensure that you have a sufficient number of each to meet safeguarding regulations such as escorting candidates to the toilet.
The following resources, which are available in The Exams Office Hub, may support you in recruiting invigilators:
- A guide to managing invigilator recruitment and training
- A guide to interviewing invigilators
- Invigilator job description (sample) – see the ‘Job description’ section of The Exams Office website: https://www.theexamsoffice.org/job-descriptions/
Prepare
Regardless of their experience, all invigilators will need to engage in training each academic year.
In addition to addressing centre specific arrangements, JCQ regulations require centres to (Instructions for conducting examinations, sections 12.2-12.5):
- Ensure that invigilators know what is expected of them
- Make invigilators aware of the JCQ Checklist for invigilators (for written examinations): https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/ice---instructions-for-conducting-examinations/
- Provide thorough training on the current Instructions for conducting examinations regulations for any new invigilators and those facilitating an access arrangement for a candidate under examination conditions
- Make the existing invigilation team aware of any changes
- Ensure that the testing of invigilators’ - and those facilitating an access arrangement - competence and their understanding of the JCQ regulations is rigorous
- Retain, and make available, a record of the content of the training given to invigilators and those facilitating an access arrangement for a candidate under examination conditions for JCQ inspection purposes
It is good practice to utilise mock examinations and resilience arrangements to assess how invigilators perform in an exam room setting prior to an exam series. This will enable an exams officer to assess each invigilator’s competence and how JCQ regulations are being implemented in practice. Using invigilators in mock examinations also supports candidates in identifying the role – and importance – of invigilators during their examination and reduces the likelihood of candidates engaging in unintentional malpractice during the formal timetabled series.
The Exams Office provides a range of certificated online training and assessment modules which can be utilised to train invigilators and facilitators, including:
- (Unit 1) New invigilators: Instructions for conducting examinations
- (Unit 2) Instructions for conducting on-screen tests
- (Unit 3) Existing/experienced invigilators: Update (including JCQ regulation changes)
- (Unit 4) Supervising and supporting access arrangements: Instructions for invigilators and facilitators
- Invigilator Digital Accreditation (for experienced invigilators)
Documents are available in The Exams Office Hub which detail the content of the online training and should be made available, if requested, to the JCQ inspector during a centre inspection.
JCQ regulations (Instructions for conducting examinations, section 12.7) also require centres to ask an invigilator to declare whether they have invigilated previously and whether they have any current maladministration/malpractice sanctions applied to them. This is needed to allow the head of centre to be satisfied that the person is a competent invigilator.
The following resources, which are available in The Exams Office Hub, may support you in training your invigilators:
A range of invigilator training videos (including an update meeting video which covers JCQ regulations for the 2024/2025 academic year, areas arising from JCQ centre inspections during the 2023/2024 academic year and handling specific scenarios/irregularities)
- A guide to preparing for invigilator training
- Access arrangements: Training presentation template
- Access arrangements: Training evaluation form template
- Centre-specific invigilator training record template
- Invigilator confidentiality and security agreement
- Invigilator handbook template
- Invigilator trainer notes template
- Invigilator training certificate of attendance template
- Invigilator training evaluation form template
- Invigilator training presentation template
- Invigilator training record template
- New invigilator training presentation template
- New invigilator training presentation: invigilator training booklet
- New invigilator training presentation: trainer notes
Availability
Exams officers should not assume that their invigilators will be available for every exam session/day. Therefore, it is imperative that invigilator availability is confirmed in good time ahead of the exam series.
Even when invigilators have confirmed their availability, it is good practice for exams officers to plan contingency measures in the event of an invigilator becoming unavailable at short notice due to, for example, illness.
The following resources, which are available in The Exams Office Hub, may support you in organising your invigilators:
- Invigilator availability and information form template
- Invigilator availability summary spreadsheet template
Deploy
Once invigilators’ availability is confirmed, the task of timetabling the appropriate number of invigilators in each examination room during each exam session and day must be undertaken.
In addition to adhering to the following JCQ regulations (Instructions for conducting examinations, section 12.8b) relating to the invigilator to candidate ratio, exams officers will also need to consider rooms where candidates have one-to-one invigilation, or where a small group of candidates are accommodated:
- at least one invigilator must be present for each group of 30 candidates or fewer sitting timetabled written examinations
- at least one invigilator must be present for each group of 20 candidates or fewer sitting timed Art examinations, timetabled CCEA Science practical examinations or WJEC GCE A2 Science practical examinations
Attention must also be given to any relative, friend or peer of a candidate in the examination acting as an invigilator as they must not be the sole invigilator, and that a teacher, a teaching assistant, a tutor or a senior member of centre staff who teaches the subject being examined, or a Learning Support Assistant who has supported one or more candidates is not an invigilator during the examination.
There may be exceptional circumstances, where a teaching assistant or a Learning Support Assistant, who has supported one or more candidates in the room, may act as an invigilator. However, they must not be the sole invigilator. Refer to your special educational needs co-ordinator for more information if this situation occurs in your centre.
In March 2025, The Exams Office will be launching its Invigilator Rota Planning Tool which will allow exams officers to allocate their invigilators to each exam room, inform invigilators of the rooms in which they will be invigilating and acquire confirmation from invigilators that they have agreed to invigilate as directed.
Evaluate
In addition to an exams officer evaluating their invigilators’ performance during training sessions and assessing invigilator competence in the exam room (and how they deploy JCQ regulations/manage specific situations) it is also important to acquire feedback from invigilators after the exam series to determine what they view as areas of strength and those which may need to be improved.
An invigilator feedback form template is available in The Exams Office Hub.