Roy C Waite

Examinations Manager

Cedar Mount High School, Manchester

Background & Experience

Roy has been an Exams Officer for the last thirteen years on top of his full time teaching load with additional senior teacher responsibilities. He was also in charge of Assessment, Reporting, Data Analysis and anything else that his Head wanted to throw at him! Three years ago he had a heart attack which he is sure resulted from the stress and strains of the ever demanding Exam Officer role. He is now back full time as an Exams Officer and keen to make sure that his experiences are not repeated across the country when exams office staff are constantly being put under extreme stress with little or no support.

Experience

Roy has been involved with the EOA from its foundation and firmly believes that the reasons behind the formation of the EOA are just as relevant today as they were back in 2000 when the organisation was created. He has attended many meetings representing the EOA over the last nine years with QCA and different stakeholders. CPD is crucial in helping Exam Officers to be recognised as true professionals. He is currently working on putting the new improved BTEC courses onto the EOA website. He is presently part of the national BTEC team supporting members taking the professional development courses and acts as an ICT consultant for the EOA on a number of projects making sure that the role of the exams office staff are put at the heart of new developments.

Vision

"I know through my own experience at school and through talking to lots of Exam Officers that senior managers in school do not understand the role or the stress that the job involves. Exams Officers need to be given training and time to do the job properly. A school cannot operate successfully without a good exams officer so it should be in the interests of a school that the exam officer staff are treated well in terms of status and pay.

Exams Officers need a united voice both nationally and in schools. If we are to be taken seriously we need to be seen as a professional body. The EOA has been the catalyst for a lot of changes that Awarding Bodies have made. As a result we now have a lot of common systems in place which makes our job much easier than it once was. This is something that is even more important now with all the new Awarding Bodies that are emerging. We have a lot of work still to do is we are going to get all the Awarding Bodies and the government to agree on common systems.

I am just as passionate about the EOA now as I was when it was first founded. I want to see a future where the EOA represents all exam office staff in the country in both schools and colleges. Only by being united can we be powerful and get both the government and Awarding Bodies to listen to our views.