Sourcing scribes or readers for in-class or departmental tests

Scribes/readers are recruited by the Disability Team in Student Support.  Their day-to-day line management is provided by the Examinations Office.

Contact

If you need a scribe or reader for an in-class or departmental test, please contact the Disability Team and ask for the list.

Where non-Essex email addresses are provided, it is recommended that you use these and not select the staff from the address book.  If you email all staff in one email, please use the BCC field.

Please be sure to advise them which role you want them to perform (scribing or reading or both).  Please also give them a contact number to call on the day in case they are late or not able to attend for any reason – if they contact the Exams Office, there may not be anyone available to pass the message on to you.

Procedure 

To ensure compliance with Tier 4 visa restrictions, you must give the Exams Office full details (dates and durations) of any work (including paid training and set-up/clearance time for tests) accepted by staff of Tier 4 visas.

This information must be provided at least one week before the staff member is due to carry out the work. This is because the Exams Office is obliged to calculate planned and confirmed hours for Tier 4 staff on invigilation and scribing contracts and to report this on a weekly basis to HR. 

There will be implications for Tier 4 staff and the University if you do not do this, and the Exams Office will seek to remove your access to the central invigilator/scribe pool.

The Exams Office will pay scribes/readers for in-class or departmental tests. Please ask these staff to submit a timesheet to the Exams Office. 

The Exams Office cannot pay staff that do not have scribe/reader contracts with the Exams Office.