Does anyone have experience of being an examinations/data officer?

[conflicted14]

Hi everyone,

I am currently a KS2 teacher hoping to leave teaching. I'd ideally like to stay within education but find an admin role. A local school are advertising for an examinations officer but I'm unsure of whether to apply.

I am trying to reduce work stress but this type of job seems very pressured and a very big responsibility. On the other hand, I am organised and I have some data experience so it might be a good idea. I have written the application but I'm having second thoughts after researching and realising that one mistake could be very serious.

Any thoughts or opinions would be welcomed.

Exams officer is a bloody awful job as far as I can tell (secondary teacher).

Are we not past the deadline, or is it a September start?

Our exams officer works very hard, works in a little office of 3 people and sends lots of emails. It looks much better than teaching.

I was, a long time ago. Less stressful than teaching ime, but long hours (world wide exams) with the stress concentrated around certain times of year.

Isn't the deadline for notice the 28th February to leave at 30th April?

Exams Officer role is fine as long as you're organised, methodical and work well to deadlines. It can be stressful to start with as staff will constantly pester you with questions you don't know the answers to, but the exam boards all have good helplines. You'll need to use your schools mis (probably SIMS or something similar) but there are lots of training courses available for exams officers.
All the data managers I know feel overworked and under ever increasing pressure, and seem pretty stressed!

I was an exams officer many years ago (on top of teaching). It was at a retake college so a nightmare because every single student had their own combination of resists & modules.

I learned that exam boards will always extend deadlines & are very helpful. The first year was a nightmare but I quite enjoyed it once I knew what I was doing.

agree its a perfect job for someone calm and very efficient. Nicely intellectually challenging too and significant responsibility so that is good.

You are feared and respected by staff

I was an exams officer in a college and loved it but it is stressful. However if you're very methodical and have a lot of attention to detail you could enjoy it. There were exams of various kinds going on all the time but that's probably different in schools where it'll probably be winter and summer.

I have been an exams officer and found that it was a real mixture of super busy and stressful times and then really slow and boring periods. Hated it.

You are feared and respected by staff

sounds ok