Welcome to a special Christmas episode of The Exam Man, in collaboration with JCQ,

In this festive episode, John and Sophie are joined by none other than Margaret Farragher, Chief Executive Officer of JCQ. Margaret is an experienced and respected leader across the public, private and voluntary sectors, with an impressive career dedicated to helping to ensure that students and schools have the very best experience of exams.

We dive into:

Margaret's journey through the exam world, leading to her heading up JCQ

The power of embracing feedback and being conscious about timing- with students and exams teams always front of mind

The key role and aims of JCQ, and the work that goes into it

.... all with a sprinkling of Christmas cheer!

Whether you’re an exams officer, SLT, parent of exam-doers, this special episode is guaranteed to teach you something you didn't know about one of the most important exams organisations in the UK.

You can listen to all previous episodes of The Exam Man here: https://theexamman.com/episodes. Thank you for listening in 2025, all the fantastic feedback, and for our brilliant guests- Merry Christmas to you all. Cin cin!

#exams #examsofficers #examregulation #assessment #jcq #schools

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To usher in GCSE results week, John and Sophie spent a delightful half hour chatting to Jennifer Halpin, Exams Team Leader at David Ross Education Trust, for a special summer episode of The Exam Man. In her role, Jen supports exams officers across the 11 secondaries at DRET, a team which includes one exams officer with 20 years' experience and also exams officers who are brand new to the role.

Hear about how Jen's innovative role came about, what it involves on a day-to-day basis and what she loves about her unique role in exams. In this episode we also learn about the phenomenon of sleepwalking exams officers, how being an adrenaline junkie is critical, and why John loves working at midnight at this time of year. The very wise Jen had some great phrases that we are totally going to steal. Listen to her excellent advice on having a 'contingency mindset', and we loved her description of GCSE results day as 'the Christmas of exams'! Wishing all our listeners a great results week ahead. For anyone concerned, Jen did indeed make the wedding!

To learn more about My Big Year do have a look around and sign up for free here: Home - My Big Year

More information about David Ross Education Trust can be found here: https://www.dret.co.uk/

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SPECIAL EPISODE of The Exam Man is here! Such a pleasure to speak to Amanda Swann, Executive Director at Ofqual, about the imminent summer exam series and the role of Ofqual- with information aplenty, helpful tips, timely reminders, and uplifting messages of appreciation for those in charge of running exams in schools. Wishing everyone the very best for the next couple of months see you on the other side!

#exams #summerseason #gcses #alevels #ofqual #examregulation

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