Cheating in GCSE exams

There’s actually an official report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/malpractice-in-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2025-exam-series/malpractice-in-gcse-as-and-a-level-summer-2025-exam-series

@Vinorosso74 agreed! My previous school used walkie talkies though...

I am considering the Bluetooth check though.

Mobile signal blocking surely can't be sensible! We use it for communicating usually via Whatsapp, the school wifi isn't great so that would cause a lot of problems for invigilators!

Some schools do Bluetooth checks in the exam room. And there are mobile signal blockers which I believe some schools use too.

Exactly. The students can also have additional needs, extra time, support issues, anxiety. You can go stripping them off when they are already on high alert in an exam situation.

What do you mean by “check them”? We aren’t allowed in the toilet with them! And we can’t physically frisk them or ask them to remove shirts.

Also an invigilator. The pre exam announcement (if they listen to it) gives students a final chance to hand anything in before the exam starts. If they don't, then they need to deal with the consequences. Where I work, students are taken to out of bounds/staff only toilets whoch require a code or card entry.
It's impossibe to 100% stop any cheating and unless we see or hear something, there is no evidence. We had an A level student last year who was suspected of cheating which.was reported to SLT
and exams officer but there was no physical proof. She didn't do very well.
Had two BTEC students who were caught trying to cheat, module marked as zero.
It could just be kids making things up but it doesn't hurt to make the school aware. I met someone, in a different job, who left her invigilating job in a private school due to the school not reporting cheating. She said most invigilators did leave and the one who raised it with the school was laughed at so reported the school to JCQ.

I only do the odd shift here and there and we get the first hour paid to set up the room which only takes about 10 minutes. Then we chat and catch up, they are all retired and I am a single mum so quite lonely at home. I love the interaction.

I really enjoy it as an adhoc role and like to see the kids progressing.

My son is at a selective grammar school and said lots of people cheated in the mocks in exactly the way the OP said (burner phone up their sleeve or stashed in toilet cubicle) also by writing reminders in biro on their arm and going to the toilet to look at it. I was genuinely shocked. No idea why the school don’t check them when they go to the toilet in the middle of an exam.

This kind of thing is one reason why CA in MFL GCSE was such an issue (and ofc now no longer exists).

The newest spec makes it much harder to prepare a list of answers to pre-known questions (in AQA especially)

EO here. In 9yrs doing the job across state comp school and highly selective private school, I've only seen this happen once in a mock.

Very very rare.

You sound like an exam cheater.

I heard about a school in Northern Ireland (this must have been about 20 years ago however) where the foreign languages teacher had written out a load of answers to hold up for struggling students to recite in their oral papers!

I think ‘incredibly interesting’ is pushing it but it’s ok! I enjoy it as I work with a good bunch of people and the hours/ seasonal work suit me. It can be boring but catching someone cheating would liven it up a bit!

Thanks, I’d not realised that.
I’d assumed it was pretty boring, just watching a room full of kids scribble away for 3 hours! (Or only 2 hours now, apparently…). Maybe I’ll add it to the list of possible retirement occupations.

It's an incredibly interesting job to do if anyone gets the opportunity or is looking for a part time role (exam season dependant).

My dad is an invigilator and last year GCSE a pupil was wearing a normal analog watch (not smart) but no one checked on way into exam. Half way through exam this pupil put his hand up and said he forgot to take his watch off and he was disqualified and had ungraded with that exam board.

He should have kept quiet but he thought he was doing the right thing but saying he forgot to take it off.

My dad has to take pupils to toilet if needed but he has to check the cistern, loo roll, any bins before child allowed in. This is recorded too and signed.

A guy in my year at school cheated on our RE a level.

one of the questions was a set one that was asked for years on repeat. Complicated question and always the same. On the way out of a different exam he swiped a couple of empty answer booklets. He pre filled in the whole answer and put the booklet up his sleeve and just swooped them out in the middle of the exam.

I was too impressed to tell on him. He got an A

They could get disqualified if they have an ordinary watch on, let alone a phone, AirPods, smart watch etc etc

I work in a college with adults and have once caught someone cheating in a mock exam with a phone on their knee. At the end of the day I don't have permission to frisk students, and even if somehow I had written permission to pat down every student, I frankly wouldn't want to. Therefore there just aren't absolute ways of making sure no-one goes in with a phone.

I used to work in a school, if they get caught cheating or with a phone they could be disqualified from all their GCSE's.

The school are obliged to tell the exam board and it's taken very seriously.

OMG that's appalling.

Tbh I always worry when I move bits of paper (which inevitably happens in a speaking assessment, whether the candidate passing me their notes or me riffling through my own prepped paperwork) in case the person marking the exam thinks I am passing the candidate some answers.

@examworries2026 you are not being a busybody. It’s possible as I said that the other YP are talking big but not actually doing this, but if they are then the school must address it.

Invigilator here. At 2 different schools. We get the odd pupil that try and cheat but it’s pretty rare and we’re all pretty clued up about it! If they got caught they would usually get zero in every exam so it’s a pretty stupid thing to do.
But it would be totally fine to email the exams officer and say what you’ve heard. There’s probably nothing more they would do as they should have robust procedures in place already but worth a mention.
To be honest most of the kids who go to the toilet during the exams are the ones who sit there looking bored and not writing much at all, particularly in the mocks.

I did my O/A levels and some of my Uni exams in the 80s. I can't remember about school but at uni people were often escorted to the loo (I had to go once too, I think I had my period). There were rumours (in one case I think they were suspended) of people leaving notes for themselves in the toilet cistern.