LAMDA Paperwork

What the latest changes mean for you

If you’ve been feeling confused or frustrated about LAMDA paperwork for the last few months, you’re not alone. The system has changed multiple times, and many teachers missed the communications from LAMDA HQ and were left feeling surprised when they didn’t receive the reports they were expecting.

A brief summary of events

Over the past couple of years, LAMDA has moved steadily towards a more digital system:

Originally: When I first started teaching, we would receive a batch of paperwork in the run-up to exams. This paperwork contained all the Learner Exam Reports (LERs) for students, ready to be filled out with the titles of their pieces before their exams. After exams, the completed LERs would arrive in the post with certificates and medals for teachers to distribute to their students.

Then: The paperwork was emailed to teachers (or more recently shared on ExamTrack), and they had to print out the LERs themselves. As before the completed LERs would arrive in the post after the exams.

November 2025: Completed LERs were emailed (and released on ExamTrack) instead of being posted. The only materials arriving by post were certificates and medals.

LAMDA explained that this aligned with their new sustainability goals… but teachers did NOT appreciate the change.

Response from teachers

Sustainability? Ridiculous! This meant that the amount of paper being printed for exams had DOUBLED! Previously every student had a single LER that was printed (originally by LAMDA, later by teachers) that followed them from the exam centre, to the examiner, to LAMDA HQ for checking, and then in the post back to the exam centre… Now each student would have two LERs: the one that was printed at the centre before the exam AND the one that was printed at the centre after the exam. Poor trees!

Okay, LAMDA’s printers might have been quieter but the impact of this change landed heavily at the feet of teachers. A group letter was written highlighting the key concerns:

• increased printing costs and workload

• assumptions about access to printers which are not always realistic

• late or unclear communication of changes

• the sense that this was less about sustainability and more about shifting costs on teachers and parents

LAMDA’s reply

You can find this in full on the LETSGO Facebook Group in a post by my co-admin, Judi Walton, on 17th December 2025, but here’s a summary:

• they confirmed that completed LERs are no longer automatically printed and sent by post after the exam, that they would be emailed digitally

• they did say that teachers could request printed LERs - this was new information!

• they said that a new alternative system was in the pipeline to reduce paperwork, and acknowledged that it would have been better if this was already in place before they stopped printing and posting the LERs

• they acknowledged that lack of printer access is an issue for some teachers

The New Update: March 2026

The promised changes have now been announced - this is the part that actually changes things from private centres:

A new “Exam Piece Titles Report” is now available

Instead of printing individual LERs for each student before the exam, you can now use a single consolidated document and record all the candidate details in one place.

This replaces the need to print multiple blank LERs in advance (although you can still use this method if you prefer).

The post-exam system won’t change: they will still send completed LERs digitally for teachers to print (or of course, we can send out individual LERs to parents by email and they can print them at home… lots of admin time vs less paper and ink) but at least we won’t be doing double the printing.

To read LAMDA’s communication in full, click this link.

My verdict

If you run a private centre then this is a genuine improvement. I haven’t yet seen the new “Exam Piece Titles Report” so not sure how arduous it will be to complete, but it will certainly save on printing costs!

However, if you enter students at a public centre, then nothing has changed: you still need to print LERs before the exam, and you still receive the completed LERs digitally after the exam, which means that you (or the parents) are still printing twice. LAMDA have said that this process is under review, but for now the system is the opposite of sustainable (twice the amount of paper per student) and the burden remains on the teacher.

I’m still not convinced that the changes were ever really about reducing paper which is a shame because sustainability really matters. But for it to work in practice it needs to be fair, clearly communicated and designed with real teaching conditions in mind. The response from LAMDA and the new Titles Report for private centres suggests that LAMDA is listening, but the public centre process still needs attention.

My final thought is that this is a good example of what happens when teachers speak collectively and constructively: things do change. Perhaps the new Titles Report would have happened anyway (they did say it was in the pipeline) but I like to think we nudged them to produce this a bit faster. They also let us know that they would print and send the completed LERs but that this would have to be requested, which may not have happened if we hadn’t worked together.

If you’ve got a private centre coming up soon and are using the new Exam Piece Titles report already, I’d love to hear how it’s working for you - especially compared to the old system.