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What's New in SchoolWorkSpace

November 2025

Exams Assist

  • Printout "Candidates - AA Used" - updated to add Present/Absent/Late if recorded

  • Printout "Exam Candidate List - By Date+Time and Room" - Seat moved to a separate column

  • Printout "Compact Seating Plan" - Option to display clash flag

  • Printout "Invigilators Sign In Sheet - with total time" - new option added "New Page per Invigilator"

  • Room - new option to display the seat number rather than coordinates

  • New Printout : "Allowances Card with Rest breaks - A4" - a combination of the Allowances Card and the Rest break card

  • Printout : "Invigilators Sign In Sheet" - new option added "New Page per Invigilator"

  • When assigning selected candidates to a room there is a new option for only in the current season

  • Duplicate Exam now has a season selection so can copy the exam across seasons.

  • Candidates Excel Download - absences tab now has the logs to show rescheduled exams.

  • Printout : "Rest Break Card - A5 / A4 two per page" to have new option for 4 per A4 Sheet

  • Printout : "Extra Time Card - 8 per page" - switched Extra Time ? Yes No to just an input box so invigilators can enter the number of minutes rather than just yes or no.

  • Printout : "Exam Room Cover Sheets" - second check added and made them customisable.

  • Printout : "Allowances Card - A5 / A4 two per page" - Added space to record Extra Time Used.

  • New Printout : "Exam AA Used" in the Registers section to complement the "AA Used" in the Candidate section - reporting on the invigilator recorded Access Arrangements used.

  • Added the ability to select "No Seat" when moving a candidate in a room or into a room, to cope when the room is full and you need to shuffle the candidates about.

  • Added ability for invigilators to record to record Extra Time Used if the recording of Access Arrangements used is enabled.

  • Added ability in Access Arrangement Settings to set if an Arrangement should be included in the recording of used or not (default is on).

  • ICE booklet pdf link added to invigilator help pages

  • New options in Exam Config for attendance for determining which periods to include. Minimum number of minutes and period must start during the exam. To help filter out writeback to periods not very covered by the scheduled exam.

Trips Assist

What's New November 2025.pdf

Exams Assist

  • New Seating plan printout - plain - with no exam details

  • New option on the Exam Skeleton Timetable by Exam report to not include Extra Time in the duration / end time

  • New print layout Exam Component Slips 20 per page

  • Print report Access Arrangement text options - to include icons and/or highlight colours

  • Multi-Print order of the collated printouts now defined by the order they are selected in

  • New print layout Exam Label with Invigilators - 8 per page

  • New print layout Allowances Card Teacher Feedback- A5 / A4 two per page

  • New auto seat order option Assign Seats - By Duration, Component, Teaching Set then Name designed for mocks where you want to keep the teaching sets together.

  • New duplicate exam season function

  • New invigilators clock design

  • Add Training session to the invigilators schedule.

  • New Register printout Examination Register By Component With Access Arrangements

  • New option on Exam Room Cover Sheet - By Room to show the AA counts per paper

  • New configuration option for Number of minutes before and after for Lead invigilators

  • Send Email to Candidates - pick the template to use (timetable, entries, results etc)

  • Send Email to Absent Students - in the Daily Planner > Attendance tab new action for sending an email to the candidates marked as absent.

  • Configuration setting for Pre-set Assistance required text (e.g. Toilet Break cover required)

  • Manual updated to V2.6 download here

Room Booking

  • Multisite support

SchoolWorkSpace

  • Option for staff only to be able to login with an email address with a school domain

  • User Preference setting - To use date dropdown rather than calendar date picker.

September 2025

Exams Assist

  • New version 2.5 of the manual Download here

  • Added "Cyber Security" to the list of training items

  • New Colour Glasses Icon added to the AA icon options

  • Set exam highlight colour

  • New Printout: Candidate and Component Card with Seat AA + Photo - 8 per page

  • New Printout: Subject Group Level (list of students by teaching set & subject with their exam level.

  • Added configuration option "Toilet breaks - add additional time" to auto add additional time based on the duration of the toilet break.

  • Added Season setting in the Portal tab to hide the extra time duration - to just display the raw exam duration and end time to students.

  • Set Status for selected entries in the Entries tab.

  • Added Invigilator cost to the Schedule Excel download

Messaging

  • Show attachment links and size in the messages sent

SchoolWorkSpace

  • Go4Schools MIS support

  • iSAMS via Batch API support

  • New Configuration option to enforce staff Multi Factor Authenticator - without this the users only get a banner asking them to do it. With the option they are forced to setup the authenticator.

  • New Entity attribute for safeguarding role users for "No Photo" where parents do not what the photo in SchoolWorkSpace / Exams Assist.

More Details

August 2025

Exams Assist

More Details

July 2025

Exams Assist

  • Exam Results - Edit season new tab to bring together results related season settings.

  • Exam Results - Access to Scripts - new functionality when students can grant access to their exam scripts and request copies.

  • Candidates - Post Results sub tab.

  • New report 'Results - Access To Scripts' to support the above

More Details

June 2025

Exams Assist

  • Move invigilator to alternate room

  • Access Arrangements Overview Tab

  • New action on the Timetable and Seating tab "Add candidates to subject exams based on group membership"

  • New configuration option for "Show digital clock above analogue clock" for invigilators

  • New configuration option to "Print Category Of Risk icon" - separates out the print and display of the category of risk.

  • New configuration option to "Enable Download Excel for print to pdf data"

  • New reports - AA Used and Exam Room Cover Sheet - By Room

  • Exam room streaming logs

Attendance Tracking

  • Ability to create certificates based on a word mail merge document

  • Option to send letters based on selected students rather than only via search criteria.

  • new print option for attendance letter.

  • Attendance statistic tiles - % attendance by group with trend graphs.

Parents' Evening

  • Ability to have meeting durations with a multiple of 30 second durations and gaps.

  • Configuration for parents and / or teachers to enter booking notes.

  • Configuration option to enable share screen function

May 2025

Exams Assist

  • New Music and Read Aloud icons

  • Invigilators cancel assistance required

  • Option to show candidate photos on the invigilators candidate list.

  • Staff portal - show the upcoming exams for the members of the group(s)

  • New reports - Word processor cover sheet & invigilators sign in sheets

  • Note for date to display to the invigilators

  • Broadcast notification to Invigilators

  • Fire and Lockdown notifications

  • New invigilator instruction videos on the help

  • New report "Access Arrangements Counts Per Exam" (in the registers section)

April 2025

Exams Assist

  • Invigilators can now record if a candidate has used their access arrangements for an Exam or not using their portal.

  • Invigilators can now record if a candidate required additional time due to unforeseen circumstances.

  • Added the ability to upload Information for Candidates (as pdf) to be displayed when they login or view their exam timetable.

  • Added and additional Access Arrangement Setting for a Dictionary - then can disable the dictionary AA for an exam.

  • Replicate Seating plans - create your master plan then select the other exam to copy to.

  • Added the ability for the Invigilators to hide Extra Time from the exam room display.

  • New Report - Electronic material download check from.

  • New Report - Candidate Seat Card - 8 per page

  • Exams Aid can Schedule invigilators - new Configuration option

  • Multi-Site Support - set the site on the invigilators and staff - filter the seasons to the selected site for the user.

Trips & Events (New Module)

  • New module currently bundled with Messaging

  • Create trips & Events, invite students and staff to attend.

  • Collect emergency contact details and any additional information required for the trip e.g. medical, medication and passport details

  • Once on the trip create roll calls and take attendance

  • Coming soon the ability to take payments for trips and events via the Invoice Module

Invoices

  • New functionality bundled with Messaging

  • Link to SumUp to create invoices and send to parents & Staff for payment.

  • Create invoices for charging for Retakes in Exams Assist

  • Send invoices to parents and track payment.

SchoolWorkSpace

  • Identified Needs - admins can set the identified needs lookup table, Users in the Safeguarding role can then record the identified needs for each student.

More Details

February 2025

Exams Assist

  • Text to speech to generate invigilators speech

  • Exam attendance (Present, Absent, Late) added to Examination Register, Exam Candidate List - By Exam and Seating Plans - Medium Boxes with AA for Invigilators reports

  • New room setting “Offsite Room” - Where the exam happens at home any attendance taken by the invigilators will not want to be written back as present or absent from the school.

  • When re-scheduling an exam for a candidate there is now the option to clear the room.

  • Multi site support - set the site for the season and set the site for the candidate.

  • Multi site support - for SIMS when importing the Statement of Entries into a season with a site set option to only import for the candidates already in the season. Effectively splitting the one SIMS SOE by site.

  • External candidate photos - on the candidate popup now has an option to upload a photo for the external candidates.

More Details

January 2025

System

  • New option for Student Legal Name for SIMS and Bromcom (previously was Arbor only)

Exams Assist

  • Updated user manual

  • Can set a separate Hourly rate in config for Lead Invigilator or on the invigilator for the estimated cost of invigilators on the overview tab.

  • Exams Assist Results tab to show NEA and Mock Results added to the season

  • Add NEA and Mock Results to gradebooks for selected exam elements and components

  • Export NEA and Mock Results created to excel

  • Import NEA and Mock Results from the updated Excel file.

  • When adding an external candidate, you can specify the email address rather than requiring editing it again to set the email address.

  • Room setting to hide the deactivated columns and rows from the seating plan.

  • Seating Plan – can now select a highlight colour for an exam in the room.

  • Entries Tab - update teaching set level (Foundation, Intermediate, Higher) from exam entry element name

  • Candidates Tab - Exam Timetable for a candidate in popup now has better links to the popup from the timetable and seating tab and a link to the invigilators popup for that candidate in the exam

  • Invigilators Popup - new exam officer function to reschedule the exam for the candidate

  • Excel Schedule download - added Skeleton_Timetable worksheet

  • Edit Seating Plan - added seat Non Extra Time option to complement the Extra Time only option

  • Edit Seating Plan - deactivated seats added ability to select an icon for the deactivated seat

  • Clash Excel Download - add worksheet to list all clashes

Attendance Tracking

  • Alternate Location - take attendance for students in the location

  • Option to import a Global Grade and display this on the attendance tracking grid.

More Details

December 2024

Exams Assist

  • Copy room and seat allocation from another exam function for an unroomed exam - select an existing exam to copy all the rooming and seating over.

  • Extra Time Other % , in the Access Arrangements > Extra Time tab, added Other to the ET Dropdown to allow either entering a custom % or the number of minutes.

  • Configure Exams Assist - new option to set the Extra Time % that are in the dropdown.

November 2024

Exams Assist

  • New report "Candidate and Component Card with Seat + Photo - A5 2 per page"

  • Option to remove tick box from Medium Seating Plan

  • New icons for AA to indicate compass points in the room.

  • New icons for AA for A to Z

  • Added Snake seat order to printing component cards.

  • Manage Access Arrangements - Multi select students and clear all Access Arrangements option.

Missing Student Events

  • New Functions to support students out of class

  • Toilet breaks

  • Missing and Found

  • Alternate locations e.g. Medical Room & Well-Being & Inclusion Room

October 2024

Exams Assist

Candidate Timetable pdf - option to add photo to header

  • Access Arrangements > Extra Time tab - multi select and set %

  • All Staff Invigilator training Excel download

  • New colour Extra Time icons so you can highlight different ET %

  • Added Roaming to Invigilator schedule download

  • iSAMS Excel imports added options for when importing the entries & timetable

  • Multi Add Invigilator training.

  • Exam Timetable Print option to add message to header and footer.

  • New AA Icon added - Large Print (Icon image) Large Print Icon

  • New Yellow and Purple colour background for candidate cards - updated to consistent terminology of Cand No rather than some being Exam No

  • "No Entry" level for teaching sets to not be used for creating exams.

  • Bromcom - import the exam seating via the api - enable the switch in the season for room+seat in Exams Assist or Bromcom.

Attendance Tracking

  • Trial mode

  • Discount for Exams Assist schools

  • Option to add FSM and supported Student flags as columns to attendance tracking grid

  • Define Tracking letters at MAT/LA level and import at the school

September 2024

Messaging

  • Mailing List

  • Attendance Tracking Integration

  • Inbox for Parents can report absences

Exams Assist

  • Access Arrangement Type Seating plan name highlight colour

  • iSAMS import files updated to support alternate format - also can import the entries and timetable

  • Scan for level changes

August 2024

General

  • Student Pronoun support

Messaging

  • Student Pronoun token replacement

Exams Assist

  • Embargo results visible to users in the SMT role

  • Embargo Until for an exam - on file import and select result rows

  • Result printout PDF - option for printing all or just results for a season

  • Results broadsheet download - by qualification - not just by subject

  • Separate embargo end time for staff so can let them see the results before the students.

July 2024

Messaging

  • SIMS Reporting to Parents - SIMS "AM Individual Report" fetch from SIMS. convert to pdf and email to parents

Exams Assist

  • Students can now share exam results with Parents - normally the exam results in the portal are only displayed to students but a new checkbox has been added to allow the students to show them on their parents portal too.

  • Exam Results - import csv

  • Exam Results - manual entry by group - From Actions at bottom of the Results tab

  • New Config option to allow Edit invigilator names so invigilator names are not updated from the staff account imported from the MIS

  • Upgraded to the Invigilator/Rooms xlsx download (from the Schedule tab) to separate the exams and merge together cells

  • Upgraded the Candidates xlsx download (from the Candidates tab) to include exam logs and start and end times for exams and by exam stats.

  • Upgraded the invigilators xlsx download (from the Invigilators tab) to include the schedule and present/absent status. Also option for multi season.

  • Exam Results Component xml file import.

  • Exam Results Email - either from candidates tab or Results tab

  • Exam Results - component results displayed to student - both in portal and on click in email.

  • Exam Results - label printing

Attendance Tracking

  • Added filter for Statutory School Age only

  • Ability to switch weekly tracking table between % attendance, % Absent, % Unauth-Absent, % Auth-Absent, % Punctuality

June 2024

SchoolWorkSpace

  • New Attendance Tracking module - By week % monitoring, attendance streaks, poor attendance letters, 100% attendance certificates.

  • New Messaging Module - Low cost, simple to use, Email and SMS to Parents, Students and Staff.

Exams Assist

  • New report "Candidate Card A6 - 4 per page" with Photo, QRCode, AA Icons and colour border options

May 2024

SchoolWorkSpace

  • Option to enable a Student Dashboard with Attendance gauge visible to student, parent and staff.

  • Configuration for Attendance target for the gauge red and amber areas.

Exams Assist

  • Option on printing the "Seating plan - Medium boxes for display" to include the students reg group

  • Invigilators announcement - multiple audio file support, and built in example (based on jcq instructions

  • Option (in config) to add reg and/or year group to the invigilators candidate list.

  • Overview page now has a few different heatmaps - and print version is tidied up a bit.

  • Print candidate timetables - option to split the pdf by candidate and save as a zip file.

  • Printing seating plans - slight tweak to scale to fit to use a bit more of the page.

  • Emailing parents and students from the timetable tab for reminders

  • New Report "Exam Room Incident Log" in the Room section

  • New Report "Candidate Timetable Label - 4 per page" in the candidate section

  • Lesson Attendance writeback option for SIMS

  • Invigilators display - update assistance required with the responses

  • Print Daily Noticeboard - uses the Daily Planner AM/PM filter

  • Daily Planner - Exams subtab option to breakdown by room for easy breakdown of exam papers required for each room

  • Multi-Print - option to allow you to select multiple reports to create a 'report pack' e.g. 2 x Seating plans and the exam register. Report pages are collated into one pdf.

Curriculum

  • Reporting to parents - comments, and signature input types for staff, parents and students.

  • Principles of Progress added to Welsh Cross-curricular skills frameworks

  • Reports - download to Excel

  • Attendance Letters - calculate attendance stats for a date range and use the % as the criteria to include students

April 2024

SchoolWorkSpace

  • Reorganised the School Settings into tabs

  • School Settings - show invoices and status - linked to Xero API for daily update.

  • No Send date for suppressing emails being sent to a person. Email bounce list for emails that fail to send.

Exams Assist

  • Reorganised the Edit Season into tabs

  • Configure invigilators Check List, markdown support and copy from JCQ option

  • Configure invigilators end exam Declaration for signature

  • New option when Building Timetable and Assign Seats from Entries to not process the Entries - just assign the seats.

  • Room Display cope with overlapping exams running in the room.

  • Show Extra Time % on the invigilators overview display

  • Room Display - show room schedule if no current exams (includes schedule from Room Booking module)

  • Exam Timetable selective restore - compare current exam tt with the backup and allow selection of rows to restore.

  • Invigilators Display - Show non Extra time end time for SRB and late start candidates

  • Invigilators Schedule - option to display the list of exams in their schedule

  • New filter for Candidates tab for clashes only

  • NEA (Non-Exam-Assessment) and Mock Result cut down Gradebooks for entry and display on the Student portal

  • New alternate layout for the Access Arrangements Card

  • Reports to remember the last used sort order

  • Skeleton timetable Report - option to exclude invigilators

  • Skeleton timetable and AA register reports - new sort orders

Room Booking

  • Integration with Exams Assist to show room owners the exams running in their rooms

Welsh Curriculum

  • Configuration of Term dates

  • Link Schemes of Work to terms

  • Link Reporting to parents generate the report to terms

  • Principles of Progress setting for a Scheme of Work and onto a gradebook

March 2024

SchoolWorkSpace

  • MyLogin (by Wonde) support

Exams Assist

  • New configuration options to allow invigilator allocation features

    • Allow adding invigilator to a Roaming session even if already allocated to a room

    • Allow adding invigilator to a supervised room even if already allocated to a room

    • Enable start and end times to be specified for an invigilator in a room.

  • Second pair of eyes report new page by room sort option

  • Arbor:

    • import Access Arrangements options

    • don't overwrite arrangements defined in Exams Assist

  • Bromcom handle withdrawn Entries

  • Invigilator tab - show timestamp of when the user last accessed the invigilator functions.

  • Results printing - optional date filter

  • New option to use invigilators Forename + Surname

  • When building exams for subjects option to use lesson times (if available)

  • new option to hide the candidate names in the schedule if there are only one or 2 in the room

  • Invigilator Checklist - configuration and new tab for invigilators to check

  • Invigilators enable 5 minute, 15 minute and 30 minute warnings - to display the time n minutes before the exam end time.

  • Invigilator show tally of present/absent/late at bottom of candidates tab

  • iSAMS import of AA and candidate details reports

  • Invigilator Checklist - copy from JCQ - with sections and headers

  • Config to hide qrcode scanner if not using

  • Entries excel download to have a withdrawn worksheet

  • Invigilator full screen display - scaling if lots of exams and not fitting

February 2024

SchoolWorkSpace

  • What's New Page - goes live

  • Bromcom native API support instructions

  • Edit group membership

Exams Assist

  • Access Arrangements - Scribe required Yes/No

  • Seating plan highlight colours switch off if AA not required for the exam

  • New Report "Exam Room Info Sheet"

  • Option on "Candidate Card with Larger Photo - 8 per page" to add a blue border to differentiate AM and PM cards

  • Candidate - New stronger Delete to remove entries and seating and the candidate from the season.

  • Arbor - better support for candidates with withdrawn entries.

  • Options on "Candidate Card with Photo - 8 per page" and "Candidate Card with Larger Photo - 8 per page" for red, green or blue borders.

  • Guillotine Sort option on "Candidate and Component Label with Seat - 14 per page"

  • Add gridlines to "Access Arrangements Register - A4 Landscape" to help invigilators align ticks to access arrangements.

  • Option when sending an email to parents to only send to Priority 1 parental contacts

  • Link to configure Exams Assist from the overview tab

  • Configure Exams Assist - added tabs for easier navigation. New Results Days config to enter the dates for results and time the embargo will end.

  • Improvements to the auto assign seats to make tidier layouts

  • Ability to add a range of seats not to auto assign if there is capacity e.g. row of seats at front of room

  • Retake scanning - fixed to cope with withdrawn candidates

  • International Baccalaureate csv/excel import

  • Attendance Tab warning if Xporter is offline

  • Candidate Timetable publish option to hide room and seat so can share the timetable while seating still being finalised

  • Use legal names option

  • Edit Centre number for a candidate - for external candidates

  • Add Retake columns to Exam Excel download

  • Candidates tab - multi select action to assign to room

  • New Report "Exam Room Cover Sheets"

  • Assign selected rows to a room from the timetable and seating tab

  • Sort orders on seating plan edits - add by Reg Group - show reg group when editing

  • Landscape option for "Room Candidate and AA Counts per Exam" report

  • Exam Orals - Prep Time, Duration and individual candidate start time

  • Public iframeable published exam timetables - with config option

  • Configure Contingency Dates

  • Schedule tab - filter by Not Learning Support

  • Schedule tab - set selected as learning support

  • Contingency dates added to Candidate Timetable footer

  • New options for "Candidate and Component Label with Seat - 14 per page" Reg Group/Year Group and AA Icons

  • New option for "Examination Register" to exclude the Present box.

  • Added candidate number to the candidates exam timetable visible from clicking on the email.

  • Other added to the Session Date time for adding a roaming and supervised room

Curriculum

  • Process markdown text in comments

  • Import of csv from Hwb for usernames/emails and national test results

  • Framework Skills - separate from Descriptions Of Learning

  • Configure Gradeset to use for "Framework Skills" and add to new tab on the gradebook

  • Cope with gradebooks with over 100 columns

  • Import & Export of Faculties

  • Import and Export of report templates

January 2024

Exams Assist

  • Separate parent and student authorise entries so can get them both to do it.

  • Ability to hide Access Arrangements in the Student/Parent portal

  • Include Invigilators Availability in the Excel download

  • Retakes function to scan for entries in earlier seasons

  • Candidate extra time used added to the excel download

  • Arbor - import in house exams

  • Seating plans - ability to flip rows and columns / A-Z axis

  • Seating plan AA highlight colours

  • New popup for request for help alerts so can keep it open while continue to use the software.

  • New report for Exam Envelope Labels - option to add AA counts

  • Added End Time for SIMS attendance writeback notes

  • Arbor import - default level to "-" so not skipping exams that are missing a level.

  • Add Prompt function for invigilators to record for a candidate with the Prompt Access Arrangement

  • New icon for Speech Recognition Access arrangement (a microphone)

  • Add duration to the Schedule Excel download Exam Schedule tab

Parent's Evening

  • Face to Face meetings - Would like to meet rather than booking slots

Welsh Curriculum

  • Multi line comments

  • Reporting to parents - template designer

  • Reporting to parents - attendance stats