Exams Officer Update
9 October 2024 |
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Welcome to latest edition of the UK Exams Officer update. We hope you're settling back in to the new school year.
As well as calling out some key dates and processes for the coming month, we’d also like to take this opportunity to share some useful information which can be passed on to any newer colleagues who may have started working with you this year.
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As a member of the exams team, you should ensure you are set up correctly in Edexcel Online. You may be responsible for the creation and maintenance of EOL accounts for other staff members such as teachers, heads of department and centre-administrators. However, responsibility for the creation of exams staff accounts sits with Pearson. This is because those accounts carry a higher level of secure access, and additional checks are required before they can be created.
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Thank you to all centres who’ve completed their Edexcel Online Account Confirmation so far. Remember, the deadline to complete this activity is 14 October.
If you haven’t already done so, please work with your head of centre to review and update your centre’s Edexcel Online accounts. Your head of centre will then need to access the Edexcel Online Account Confirmation to confirm that your centre accounts are up to date. If your centre has multiple subsites, you will need to confirm the account list for each subsite separately.
If you don’t deliver vocational qualifications with us, there is also a tab within the confirmation screen to accept our updated terms and conditions, which your head of centre will also need complete as part of this activity. Vocational centres will complete this as part of the Annual Quality Declaration.
Read our centre guide to the Edexcel Online Account Confirmation
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If you need to make any changes to exams staff or head of centre accounts, we will need to do this for you; complete this form and we’ll arrange a secure callback with you.
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We’re excited to introduce our enhanced Qualifications Customer Support Portal, designed to make getting help quicker and easier than ever. Created with our customers in mind, new or enhanced features include:
- A new streamlined contact-us journey enables you to connect quickly with our support teams in the way that suits you; via live-chat for real-time assistance, our new webform, as well as traditional phone or email routes.
- You can use your Pearson Portal (Edexcel Online) credentials to access secure personalised support even faster, and view your existing cases.
- Our comprehensive support article library has also been restructured with sections specific to teachers, exams officers and quality nominees, as well as stronger search functions, to resolve your own queries quickly and easily.
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Our new dedicated space for Exams Officer training has been created as part of our commitment to you to offer enhanced support and training in 2024 and beyond.
Features
You can access our library of interactive modules alongside live training, curated support articles, and the most useful documents from our website. We have brought everything you need to one place to save time when you need to upskill or refresh yourself on a topic.
- Pause interactive modules and return to them later
- Make notes in the notepad that you can refer to and download later
- Receive email alerts when new content is released.
- Follow curated learning paths for a particular qualification or process
Exams Officer Update live sessions
Why not join us for our next live online event, taking place on Thursday 17 October, 2pm - 3pm.
You can also register for future events taking place in November and December.
As with last year's events, we will go through news, updates and processes for the coming weeks and give you the opportunity to ask any general questions.
Click the link below to register for these events. |
The likelihood is that Pearson won’t be the only awarding organisation that you or your centre work with, and this means that you will receive lots of different communications. Some of these may be more relevant to your role than others, so it’s important that you and your colleagues are signed up to receive the regular updates that matter to you. It's also important that Edexcel Online accounts are accurate as these are used to determine who needs to receive ad hoc communications.
As Exams Officers, you will be responsible for the creation and maintenance of Edexcel Online account for those in other roles, such as teachers or other curriculum staff. Whilst doing this you could also sign them up to receive the relevant subject advisor updates.
Here is a full list of all the regular updates we send, including an archive of previous editions and the sign-up forms.
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There are multiple ways to contact the customer service teams at Pearson. The New Customer Support Portal allows you to choose a method that best suits you.
- Support case – This is much like an email, but we will see all the information you have already populated. You can then log back in to the portal to track the progress of these cases.
- Live chat – A team of agents is waiting to answer these during normal working hours.
- Phone – If you would like to speak with us, we have a team of agents waiting to take your call.
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Cyber Security
Whether you’re a new or experienced Edexcel Online user it's important that we are all aware of the possible threats to our collective data. We would encourage all exams staff, new and old to visit our cyber security webpage and watch our short training video.
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Multi Factor Authentication
Multi Factor Authentication was successfully rolled out to nearly a quarter of a million Pearson Portal users last year. Although it has now become a standard way of accessing our systems, that we should all be familiar with, it can sometimes present challenges if a smart device is lost or replaced. You can read more information, see a quick start guide and access FAQs and troubleshooting for our authenticator app in our Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.
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Changes to the BTEC deletion deadline
We wanted to highlight a change this year to the BTEC deletion deadline to 31 December. If your programme follows the academic year, you will have until 31 December to delete your registration (or withdraw a BTEC Tech Award registration) and receive a refund, provided the learner has not completed any units and no test bookings have been made. After this date, you will need to withdraw the learner instead. |
| Date |
Description |
| 14 October |
Deadline to complete Annual Quality Declaration and Edexcel Online Account Confirmation
All centres
2024/2025 |
| 18 October |
January/February series entry deadline
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards (2022), Level 2 Technicals, BTEC Tech Awards (2017)
January 2025 |
| 1 November |
BTEC registration deadline
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards (2022), Level 2 Technicals, BTEC Tech Awards (2017)
2024/2025 |
| 21 November |
Basedata issued
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards (2022), Level 2 Technicals, BTEC Tech Awards (2017)
June 2025 |
| 31 December |
NEW BTEC registration deletion deadline
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards (2022), Level 2 Technicals
2024/2025 |
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Due to the timing of the Easter break in 2025, we will release summer pre-release material from 31 March 2025 for units in Animal Management, Applied Law, Business/Enterprise, CPLD, Creative Digital Media Production, Health and Social Care, Music Technology, Sport and Travel and Tourism.
We’ve also made changes to the summer 2025 assessment windows for the following units:
31827H Art and Design – The assessment window has been changed to 28/04/2025 - 02/05/2025, with a submission date of 07/05/2025
20158K and 20161K - IT – The assessment window has been changed to 22/04/2025 - 13/05/2025, with a submission date 13/05/2025
31771H – Computing – The assessment window has been changes to 28/04/2025 - 02/05/2025 , with a submission 02/05/2025.
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The Annual Quality Declaration needs to be completed by each vocational centre’s quality nominee by 14 October.
Whilst not an activity directly for exams staff, your centre’s Quality Nominee may require your support in ensuring their account is set up correctly. Please ensure that the designated Quality Nominee has the box marked " Please check this box if you are the Quality Nominee for your centre" ticked on their account profile, as they will need this to access the Annual Quality Declaration on Pearson Progress. Once ticked, they should be able to log in to Pearson Progress with their Edexcel Online credentials after 72 hours.
Read our centre guide to the Annual Quality Declaration. |
Download our Exams Officer autumn checklist to get your term off to a flying start. It highlights the six things you need to do to make sure you’re set up for the year and can meet the first deadlines of 2024/25. |
As learners are enrolled on to their BTEC programmes (including BTEC Tech Awards), you should make their BTEC registrations by 1 November to avoid any late fees. You should check that your centre has approval for the programme they will be following, and if you need to gain approval to run a course you should do this straight away.
Where learners have completed a BTEC programme, and are moving on to a larger sized qualification this year, you should “top up” these learners, and not create a new registration. You can create a top-up once the learner’s previous qualification has been certificated. We are issuing summer certification in early October, ahead of schedule to allow you to process top ups ahead of the January 2025 exam entry deadline.
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Key dates schedule and upcoming deadlines
At the beginning of the year, you’ll need to make sure that you make any new registrations for 1 November. If any learners are sitting an assessment in December/January, you’ll need to make entries for external and internal components by 18 October.
December/January PSAs are available now
You can access the new PSAs for December/January assessments on each subject’s page, which you can select from the main BTEC Tech Award page. A reminder that Art and Design doesn’t have a December/January assessment window; the PSA released on 2 September is for use within the May/June window.
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We’re reaching out to invite schools, sixth form colleges, FE colleges, and training providers to collaborate with us on some exciting improvements we’re planning for 2024/25.
If you’d like to get involved in providing feedback for the VQ Learner Tracker and how we can refine our processes to better support you, complete our short form and we’ll be in touch over the next few weeks with more information.
Complete an expression of interest form.
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| Date |
Description |
| 18 October |
Entry deadline
Edexcel Award in Maths, Project qualifications
January 2025 |
| 21 October |
Deadline to submit Access Arrangement requests
Edexcel Award in Maths, Project qualifications
January 2025 |
| 1 November |
Deadline to submit Access Arrangement requests
GCSE English Langauge and Mathematics
November 2024 |
| 1 November |
Deadline to submit Access Arrangement requests
International GCSE
November 2024 |
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The deadline for ordering modified papers for the autumn 2024 exam series has now passed.
If you were unable to meet the deadline, please place your late order on AAO/PAAO, as a matter of urgency. Then contact us by way of email on additional_requirements@pearson.com, quoting your order number and centre number. We will then be able to advise you if it will be possible to supply a modified paper.
Please be aware the deadlines for ordering modified papers are as follows:
- 4 October - January Series
- 31 January - summer series
- 20 September - November series
These do not change each year.
The data is now available on AAO/PAAO for both the January 2025 and summer 2025 exams, so please place your orders as soon as possible.
For further information on modified papers, access to past modified papers and answers to FAQs, please go to the modified formats page on our website. |
If any of your learners sitting these examinations have additional requirements, it is important your centre applies for these arrangements on their behalf.
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If your candidates are resitting their GCSE Maths or English exams in November, you can expect to start receiving standard and modified question papers from Tuesday 15 October.
The Yellow Label Service will be in place for this series for centres in England to return scripts. You can expect to start receiving attendance registers and labels for November from Monday 7 October.
If you require electronic copies of these question papers, please check your Edexcel Online accounts are up-to-date, ensuring you have access to our Secure Download Service (SDS) service. |
The Provisional timetables for November 2025 GCSE and International GCSE will be available on our website from Monday 7 October.
The feedback window will run until Friday 1 November.
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If you choose to contact us via email to examsofficers@pearson.com, you'll notice that our responses are sent from 'customersupport.reply@pearson.com'. This is a response only email address, and allows any responses you send, by clicking 'reply/reply all', to be linked to the existing support case.
However, if you were to compose a brand new email and send to that reply email address, there is no case to link it to, so we do not receive your email and you will not receive a response. This should result in a bounce back email stating the address is invalid. |
Don't forget we have a dedicated Pearson Exams Officer Support page on Facebook. This provides you with a quick and convenient way to stay up to date with our latest news and live updates from the team.
Important and informative announcements will be posted on the page daily and messages will be monitored 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday by Charlie, Emma and Seren; our dedicated Social Media Team. Message them with for help with your queries throughout your working day. |
Sign up to receive these updates
If you would like to sign any of your colleagues up to receive these updates, you can do so here. You can view previous editions of the EO Update on our support portal. |
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