Stephanie: I was very fortunate initially when I started teaching. My head of department recommended after the first year almost that I applied to do exam marking because she absolutely knew the benefits it would bring not just to myself but to the whole department that I could then feed back to them. I started off doing GCSE and I've then since moved on to A level and AS and that has proved enormously beneficial not just to myself but also to the rest of the department that I've been able to give advice to, talk specifically about the specification and the mark scheme.

And my head of department still continues to encourage everyone within the department to do as much exam marking as possible so we cover between us a range of GCSE and A level specifications. We're then able to share our expertise and effectively have in-house training. I think as a school that's the most important thing for us. It shows in our results, the papers that we're most familiar with we do get better results in.

As an examiner you then also have access to a whole range of papers. You can see the pitfalls of certain questions so you could advise your own students and then you can advise everyone else as to what you have learned. And I think also sometimes when you've been teaching texts for a long time you do become a little bit stale perhaps in the way you are delivering them. And in reading this range of papers you're given fresh new ideas that enables you to come to the paper and come to teaching with a fresh perspective.

Fitting it in is not a problem. You do have to be very disciplined, maybe preparing beforehand so you clear all your school work. But the exam period is only three, maybe four weeks at a time when year 11 and year 13 are gone. So you have a little bit more freedom in order to be able to get the work done.

And of course when it comes to doing things like mock exam marking you know exactly how that mark scheme works. You can advise other people in your department. And in schools where very often we're being asked to give very, very specific targets and a very specific idea about what grades students will eventually get. You can do that with a unique insight and a unique knowledge that perhaps I certainly wouldn't have had otherwise.

And examining and team leading has given me that confidence and given me that expertise that has benefited both myself and the whole school. That I have then been able to do interdepartmental training and really helped a lot of new teachers.

So I would really strongly recommend that headteachers and heads of department encourage and even motivate their staff to take up examining not just for the benefit of individual teachers but for the benefit of whole cohorts of students and the school as a whole.