1. Introduction
1.1. Intended Audience
1.1.1. This policy is provided for Equestrian Training Limited (ETL) customers, learners and staff members who are using or delivering courses and qualifications offered by the company.
1.2. Location of the Policy
1.2.1. The latest version of this policy is available for all staff members, third parties and learners to access online via ETL’s website.
1.2.2. This policy will be reviewed annually or in response to changes required by the awarding organisation or other regulatory body.
1.3. Communication of the Policy
1.3.1. Every staff member involved in the management, delivery, assessment and quality assurance of qualifications offered by ETL shall be made aware of this policy during their induction period of employment.
1.3.2. Freelance invigilators shall sign that they have read and understood this policy.
1.3.3. Learners undertaking relevant qualifications through ETL shall be informed of this policy during their induction process.
2. Exam Rules & Procedure
2.1. Exam Setting
2.1.1. One invigilator is permitted to invigilate a maximum of 20 learners.
2.1.2. Invigilators must be able to observe all learners at all times during an exam.
2.1.3. An invigilator must be able to summon help without disturbing learners taking an exam.
2.1.4. Learners should be seated at a distance from one another of 1.25 meters.
2.1.5. When preparing an examination room, invigilators should consider an area for learners to store their personal belongings. Bags and other belongings should be out of reach of learners and access to them must be monitored by the invigilator.
2.1.6. The start and finish times of an exam must be clearly visible for all learners to view in the exam room (e.g. on a whiteboard or sheet of paper).
2.1.7. A clock must be visible to learners at all times throughout the exam.
2.2. Exam Process
2.2.1. Ideally learners should be seated and ready to take the exam 5 minutes before the start of the exam.
2.2.2. Learners arriving late for an exam, by less than 15 minutes, must be seated near to the door and disturbance to other learners kept to a minimum.
2.2.3. Learners who are more than 15 minutes late will not be able to enter the exam room or undertake the exam. In such cases, a FAIL will be recorded.
2.2.4. Learners may only take the listed equipment for the exam into the examination room. Any pencil cases must be transparent. Mobile telephones and other electronic equipment are not permitted with the exception of approved calculators.
2.2.5. The guidance to learners relating to the exam must be read out by the invigilator prior to the start of the exam.
2.2.6. Invigilators must not talk to or distract learners during the exam.
2.2.7. Once the exam has started learners may not ask questions about the exam. In exceptional circumstances they may seek the attention of the invigilator, for example if they need to use the toilet.
2.2.8. If a learner wishes to leave the room for any reason and intends to return to continue their exam, they must be accompanied. The invigilator must remain with them at all times. The learners remaining in the exam room must continue to be invigilated.
2.2.9. If a learner is suspected of malpractice, the invigilator must warn the learner that he/she may be removed from the examination room. The candidate should also be warned that the awarding organisation will be informed and may decide to disqualify the candidate.
2.2.10. An invigilator must take the following action in an emergency such as a fire alarm:
stop learners from writing;
collect the Learner Attendance Register and evacuate the examination room;
advise learners to leave all exam papers in the examination room;
ensure all learners are supervised as closely as possible while they are out of the exam room to make sure there is no discussion about the exam;
make a note of the time of the interruption and how long it lasted;
allow learners the full working time set for the examination; if there are only a few learners, consider the possibility of taking the learners (with question papers and scripts) to another place to finish the examination;
make a full report of the incident and of the action taken on the Invigilation Report and send to the awarding organisation.
2.2.11. Invigilators must remind learners when there are ten minutes of the exam remaining.
2.2.12. At the end of the exam learners must be told to stop writing and ensure that their name and reference number is on the exam answer sheet.
2.3. Post Exam
2.3.1. An invigilator must complete an Exam Attendance Register and Exam Invigilation Report for every exam session. The report should show:
the date of the exam
the time the exam took place
the location of where the exam took place
any learner who attended the exam late, up to 15 minutes
any learner who attended the exam late, beyond 15 minutes
any other circumstances of unusual exam practice. must be identified on the invigilator’s exam report.
2.3.2. Exam papers and learner exam answer sheets (if different) must be collected in immediately at the end of the exam. The invigilator must check that the learners have completed their details correctly before the learners have left the exam room.
2.3.3. All exam papers must be stored securely in a locked cabinet/drawer prior to dispatch to the awarding organisation.
2.3.4. The answer papers must not be changed, checked or altered in any way between the time of collection from learners to the dispatch/scanning for marking at the awarding organisation.
2.3.5. An invigilator must inform the head of centre of any malpractice or suspected malpractice, immediately. It is the head of centre’s responsibility to inform the awarding organisation as soon as possible, all cases of suspected or actual malpractice in connection with an exam.
2.3.6. Where the centre has an issue with a question that is considered misleading or incorrect on the exam paper, the awarding organisation should be made aware of this immediately.
3. Storage of Assessment Materials
The Designated Authorised Person is responsible for the following:
the security and integrity of the assessments and associated materials at all times. This includes both electronically saved and printed materials.
access to this storage must be restricted to authorised personnel only
ensuring the centre uses assessments from the current bank of live assessments as accessed above, and that the centre’s internal policy is followed in terms of choosing assessment topics and enforcing a rotation across assessments available throughout the academic session
ensuring material is not downloaded and/or printed more than 2 weeks prior to the scheduled assessment date/s then, once printed, that material is placed in the secure storage.
Speaking, Listening and Communicating at Entry 3 to Level 2 topics can be accessed 2 weeks prior to the assessment date to allow for sufficient preparation time having a process in place whereby the Assessor(s) can notify the Designated Person that they have learners ready to sit the assessment, then making the assessment materials available from a secure location ensuring that when materials are requested by Assessors, they are printed and stored in a packet(s)/envelopes that can be securely sealed until the day of the assessment completing the centre tracking document to ensure assessments assigned to learners are accurately recorded, which will inform resits, as a learner cannot resit the same paper.
Assessments must be accessed and printed again if required by a different learner, for resit or for a different cohort
passwords, which will only be available for assessments where there are active registrations against that actual product.
Authorised personnel only have access to the assessment materials or completed learner work, ensuring assessment material isn’t tampered with.
Awarding organisations must be informed immediately if the integrity or security of the controlled assessment materials is put at risk by theft, loss, damage, unauthorised disclosure, fire or any other circumstances.