Exams Officer Newsletter
October 2025 |
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Welcome to your new look monthly Exams Officer newsletter |
We hope you and your learners have had a well-deserved rest over summer and are settling back into college or school well. Thank you to all exams officers, teachers, support staff and senior leaders who worked closely with us last year to make sure we could deliver results successfully in August. We're looking forward to working with you again this new academic year 2025/26.
Whether you're new to the role or already part of your centre's exams team, these monthly updates are designed to guide you to the right support and help you stay prepared.
You may not have previously received these updates, however, based on your current job role in Edexcel Online, we feel you would benefit from receiving these. These updates will be sent to customers with their Edexcel Online job role as exams officer, manager or assistant. If you don't wish to receive these updates, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.
As always, we are here. If you need support, or want to provide us with feedback, reach out to us through the Pearson support portal.
Best wishes,
Pearson Communications |
This month's news and updates |
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Activity |
| 4 October |
Entry deadline: GCSE November 2025 series |
| 9 October |
High late fees deadline: charged from for International GCSE October 2025 series |
| 17 October |
Entry deadline: for Edexcel Award / Project qualifications in January 2026 series |
| 17 October |
Entry deadline: make entries for Dec/Jan series. Firsts, Nationals, Technicals and Tech Awards (including Tech Award internally assessed) |
| 28 October |
Deadline to complete Edexcel Online Account Confirmation and T&Cs |
| November |
Summer certification will begin to arrive in centres |
| 1 November |
BTEC registration deadline*: register your students on programmes that follow the academic year |
| 14 November |
High late fee entry deadline for BTEC January 2026 series |
| 15 November |
BTEC registration deadline*: register your L4 HNCs and L5 HNDs students that follow the academic year |
| 21 November |
Basedata available for BTEC Firsts, L2 Technicals, Nationals and Tech Awards (from 2022) for summer 2026 series |
| 31 December 2025 |
BTEC deletion deadline: deadline to delete learner registrations and receive a full refund for registrations made this academic year |
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*For programmes that don’t follow the academic year, learners must be registered within six weeks of enrolment at the centre. |
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28 October deadline for Edexcel Online account confirmation and terms and conditions
Heads of centre need to confirm their Edexcel Online accounts and accept the updated terms and conditions by 28 October. Exams officers, you’ll play a big part too. You’ll need to work with your head of centre to check accounts are up to date and make sure only the right people have secure access.
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Centre Declarations of Interest
At Pearson, we value protecting the integrity of our qualifications and assessments for our learners. Our centres have a shared responsibility to help us do this through reporting and managing possible conflicts of interest that may arise relating to our qualification assessments.
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New Academic Year Essential Information |
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To help you prepare for the year ahead, we've put together this new academic year essential information article containing important information on upcoming key dates, events, assessments, and available support and resources. |
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Watch this space! We will shortly be releasing the Autumn/ Winter essential information article, we'll update you further once this is available. |
Join us on our General Qualification 'Bitesize' webinars
If your a new Exams Officer or just new to Pearson general qualifications, you might have questions about the administration of these.
Over the coming months, we will be running a series of interactive, engaging live events which are dedicated to specific GQ admin processes, providing in depth guidance and include demonstrations on the completion of the process specified.
Why not join us for our first GQ Bitesize event, taking place on Monday, 6 October 11am -12pm.
With the November GCSE resit series nearly here, this event will focus on managing GQ entries.
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November 2025 Basedata
A new version of the November 2025 basedata is available to download. The version 2.0 basedata has been updated to include the Onscreen entry options for International GCSE qualifications. If you do not deliver Onscreen options for International GCSE, then you do not need to update your existing November 2025 basedata. |
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Introducing the new GCSE MFL digital sequencing tool
We’re excited to let you know about a new digital tool we’ll soon be launching for GCSE French, German and Spanish – the GCSE MFL Sequencing Tool. |
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Everything you need to start the year |
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To help you get off to a strong start, we've gathered everything you need for this term in on place. You'll find tailored guidance and resources for exams officers, teachers, quality nominees and senior leaders, all designed to make your job a little easier and give your students the best possible experience. |
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Join us on our BTEC 'Bitesize' webinars
If your new to BTEC, Edexcel Online may suddenly feel like a very strange place. Perhaps you've been in role for a number of years and just need a refresher!
Over the coming months, we will be running a series of interactive, engaging live events which are dedicated to specific BTEC admin processes, providing in depth guidance and include demonstrations on the completion of the process specified.
Why not join us for our first BTEC Bitesize event, taking place on Tuesday, 7 October 11am -12pm.
You can see the agenda and register for the event on the link below. |
New Level 3 BTEC National AAQs
The new Level 3 BTEC National AAQs are now open for first registration this September. We wrote to you earlier this month with everything you need to hit the ground running.
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Registrations and Top-ups
For programmes that follow the academic year, students should be registered by 1 November 2025.
For students who completed their BTEC in summer 2025 and are moving to a larger qualification size, make sure you top-up their registration. Don’t re-register them, as this will create a duplicate record. The top-up process will be available from 10 October and if learners need entries for January 2026, you should complete the top-up and submit the entry by 17 October.
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Check your L3 funding in England
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New tools to benchmark your students' BTEC National results
You’ve asked, we’ve listened: you can now benchmark your students’ BTEC National results against national statistics in ResultsPlus, at both unit and qualification levels.
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UK Webinar Events
We will host a series of online Exams Officer Updates during 2025/2026. These live events go through news, updates and various areas to support you in the coming month. |
If you were unable to attend our event on 25 September, you can access the recording on the support portal. |
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Find out everything you need to know to manage examinations and administer our qualifications.
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Our new dedicated space for Exams Officer training created this as part of our commitment to you to offer enhanced support.
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JCQ
Published on 17 Sept 2025. Sign up to future updates.
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Ofqual
Keep up-to-date with the latest news and blogs.
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The Exams Office
Working in collaboration with Dfe, Ofqual, JCQ and awarding bodies.
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Social media
Join our Facebook community to stay up to date with news.
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