In my experience, as an ex-school data manager, you can never start preparing for results days too soon. It doesn’t matter whether it's your first or fifteenth results day, we always need to be ready for the unexpected. The last few years have definitely taught us that!
In my last role as a Data Consultant, each year I discussed ‘survival tips’ with school staff and my advice would always include ‘always do as much as possible before the actual event’. Results days can be long and hectic.
"The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." - H. Jackson Brown Jr.
We’ll never think of every eventuality, but I highly recommend putting together an action plan or work schedule - we all love a good spreadsheet. I used to break mine down into sections such as Pre Results Days, A-Level Embargo Day, A-Level Results Day, GCSE Embargo Day and GCSE Results Day. It can be updated really easily and you’ll find the following year so much easier with it by your side. New colleagues will find it especially helpful, as processes and responsibilities can differ between schools.
*the above items were very specific to the school I worked at & my processes - these may not apply to you
When compiling it, think about:
Most schools will find the following action points useful:
Good luck and enjoy - your hard work will pay off!
At Compass, we understand how stressful examination periods can be, not only for the candidates sitting exams, but also for the Exams officers and senior leadership staff who organise and supervise them. The impact of exam stress is not limited to students alone; it affects the well-being of teachers as well. In fact, studies conducted in the UK indicate that during exam periods, 45% of teachers reported experiencing high levels of stress (according to a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, ATL).With this in mind, we’ve designed our exams module to make exam time much simpler.
Read StorySo if innovation is not exactly gushing forth from SIMS, where do we look for it? Well, I took on an advisory role at Compass, the Australian HQ-ed MIS, two years ago precisely because I was keen to see more new thinking in this space. And now that their first English schools have gone live it seems like a great time to catch up with UK General Manager Pete Collison to find out more about the identity they’re carving out for themselves. Here’s a rundown of our conversation.
Read StoryHere at Compass, we are delighted to launch our brand new, integrated data visualisation tool for schools: Pulse. We know as schools you are swamped with unproductive tasks that burn through your precious time, with endless reports, exports, OfSted documentation writing impact statements and reporting back in Local authority meetings. So we got to work making sure the data you collect already can be easily repurposed and transformed into intuitive reports and data visualisations (graphs, pie charts etc.) for all your needs, and no additional workload.
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