Exams Officer update September 2026

General information for Exams Officers

Training for all Exams Officers

Whether you're new to the Exams Officer role or looking to refresh your knowledge, we have a range of training opportunities available this term.

We're delivering face-to-face training in Manchester and Guildford this autumn, with extra in-person dates planned later in the academic year. If you can't join us in person, online training dates are also available.

For both new and experienced Exams Officers, we are offering a series of free webinars covering key topics for the November exam series, including: entries, non-exam assessment (NEA), special consideration, running exams, and results and post-results services.

All of our training is delivered by members of the Exams Officer Engagement team, who are former Exams Officers, is completely free and available to book on our website.

Do you have a new Exams Officer?

If you have a new Exams Officer in your centre, let's get them set up on our systems. This means they’ll be able to access the relevant materials, start receiving our onboarding emails and our valuable monthly Exams Officer updates.

Our website gives you the step-by-step information you need to request any necessary changes.

We understand how overwhelming becoming an Exams Officer can be, so we’ve created a supportive Onboarding Hub for new Exams Officers. Here you’ll find a step-by-step guide to becoming part of our Exams Officer community and delivering our exams.

Training especially for new Exams Officers

We look forward to welcoming you to one of our ‘New to Exams’ training events. You can join in person in Manchester, Guildford, or Milton Keynes, or as four online sessions over two days. All of our training is free, and delivered by members of the Exams Officer Engagement team, who are former Exams Officers.

Our training dates for the first autumn term, including entries webinars for the November series and our JCQ General Regulations and ICE updates are now available to book on our website.

Are you part of an Exams Officer network?

Our Exams Officer Support Advisors attend network meetings with Exams Officers across the country. These meetings give Exams Officers the chance to meet and support each other, share best practice, discuss challenges and celebrate successes. They count as part of your CPD, and therefore also help your centre satisfy JCQ expectations. If you’d like to be part of an Exams Officer network, or if you already manage or attend an independent network and would like us to join you, please complete our short form with your details and a member of the team will get back to you.

November 2026 exam series

Entries

The deadline for making entries for the November series is Saturday 4 October 2026. If you need to enter any new learners after this date, their entries will be charged a late entry fee.

See our entries pages for more information.

Please make sure you use the student’s original UCI to make your entries, especially if you’re carrying forward an NEA or endorsement, which will be linked to the original UCI. If you use a new UCI, this could lead to delays when processing your entry file. Using the student’s original UCI will also help to reduce the risk of problems when importing exam results.

November series eligibility

There’s an age restriction for entering learners for GCSE English Language and GCSE Maths in the November exam series. Only learners who were at least 16 years old on 31 August 2026 can be entered.

If any learners arrive to sit exams for these qualifications without an entry, you must make sure they meet the age restrictions before allowing them to sit the exam.

Entries webinars

If you’re making entries for the first time in this series, or just need a refresher, why not book onto one of our Entries webinars (with live Q&A) by going to our website. There are webinars for new exams officers with detailed instructions as well as a shorter webinar for experienced exams officers providing a refresher to choose from. All of our webinars are free and delivered by members of the Exams Officer Engagement team.

Access Arrangement paperwork

Please remind your SENCos to send access arrangements paperwork to colleges if they have asked for them. Students may be resitting GCSEs, moving on to Level 1/2 vocational qualifications or progressing to Level 3 qualifications. It’s important that colleges are aware of students’ access arrangements and receive paperwork when they request it.

November 2026 non-exam assessment (NEA)

You'll be able to submit NEA marks, grades or make carry forward requests for November 2026 using 'Centre mark submissions' (CMS) on Centre Services from Friday 10 October 2026. The deadline for doing this is Wednesday 5 November 2026.

You can find information about submitting NEA marks and grades on our website, or you can watch our Centre Mark Submissions in Centre Services YouTube playlist.

Carry forward of marks

GCSE English Language learners can carry forward their Spoken Language Endorsement grades – even if they sat the original exam with a different exam board.

If a learner has a previous grade of ‘Pass’ or better, and they have not made a new attempt at the endorsement, it is important to submit a carry forward request for them. The endorsement grade (including ‘Not Classified’) appears on a learner’s certificate, so it is important that we capture their best effort.

You'll need to use the learner's UCI/ULN from the previous attempt, otherwise we’ll not be able to process the request.

Submit EPQ samples online from November 2026

Just to remind you that Extended Project Qualification samples will be submitted online for the first time from the November 2026 series onwards. You will need to upload your samples using Centre marks submission (CMS).

This means you'll no longer be able to submit student samples by post for this qualification.

We've put together some teacher FAQs with a section for EPQ on preparing your samples for CMS, and there's more information about how to submit samples on our website.

Change to November 2026 Results Day

Results day for the November 2026 exam series has been changed, with restricted release day to centres now on Tuesday 12 January 2027, a day earlier than originally scheduled. You can release results to candidates on Wednesday 13 January 2027.

All the JCQ awarding bodies have adopted this change for this year only, after feedback from teacher associations.

The JCQ emailed schools and colleges about this earlier this month.

Unused exam stationery

We’re aware some centres may end up with more stationery than they need, and we’re exploring a long-term solution. In the meantime, please follow the guidance below to reuse or dispose of materials correctly, if you do not have any room to keep it.

Answer booklets and supplementary lined answer booklets

Answer booklets and supplementary lined answer booklets must not be used in classrooms or mock exams. Please shred these before recycling with other paper (check local authority guidance).

Other stationery

The following items can be used in classrooms and/or for mock exams once the series they have been provided for has ended:

• clean anthology/poetry anthology
• digital music/audio files
• formula/formulae Sheet
• tracked CDs
• Periodic Table Insert
• untracked CDs
• physics equations sheet
• card packs/oral stimulus cards
• yellow labels.

If any of these items are no longer needed, they can be recycled where possible or put in the bin.
We'll keep you updated on our surplus stationery solution, as part of our sustainability goals.

Student Advisory Group – recruitment for 2026/27

We’re looking for learners to join our Student Advisory Group to help us make key decisions about the future of exams.

We’d love to hear from learners who’ve completed AQA GCSEs since 2024, as well as from those currently taking AQA AS and A-levels. We also really want to hear from students taking vocational qualifications with AQA or any other exam board, as long as they have previously taken at least one AQA qualification.

Since the Student Advisory group began they’ve represented the student voice each year at the Parliamentary Youth Reception, shared their views at the Curriculum and Assessment Youth Shadow Panel, fed into our Curriculum and Assessment call for evidence response, given insights on AI in the Classroom at the 2026 Festival of Education, helped with reviewing books for our English literature set texts list, and much more.

So, if you know any learners who you think would be interested, please pass this on. Full details of the role and how to apply can be found on our website.

Applications close at 5.00pm on Monday 22 September 2026.