The summer exam season is an anxious time for both students and teachers. This year in particular, when some young people will be sitting formal examinations for either the first time in three years or the first time ever, tension will be running particularly high.
So what can staff do to support their students with the stress associated with this period? Having helped them prepare academically, are there tools that teachers can use to make them more mentally resilient?
In this episode of the Tes podcast, senior editor Simon Lock speaks with two experts to explore how mindfulness techniques can help pupils manage their nerves ahead of an exam. He also discovers some simple exercises that students can use themselves in the classroom or exam hall.
Rose Webb is a regional development manager and trainer at Thrive, and has practised mindfulness techniques professionally and at home for many years. Having worked supporting adults to better understand the emotional needs of young people, she knows what a difficult period the exam season can be. But as students approach an important phase of their education, how much stress is too much?
Healthy vs unhealthy stress
“It would be really normal for students and probably teachers to be experiencing what we call healthy stress at this time,” explains Webb, “because it helps mobilise us to rise to those times where we do public speaking, interviews or exams.
“Where it starts to be a concern is where levels of anxiety or stress are persistent in terms of disrupting daily life. So for example, if students are really struggling to get any sleep at night, if students were unable to eat during the day, that would be a cause for concern. Those types of things actually exacerbate or make stress and anxiety worse.”
For Webb, this is where mindfulness techniques can have a real impact, not only on the day of the test, but as students prepare and revise.
“Starting a revision session with a simple mindfulness activity would really set you up to have more focus and concentration for the piece of revision that you’re going to do,” Webb explains.
However, the best preparation can be undone if students succumb to the pressure of the exam hall. So how can staff use mindfulness to better equip those learners who might be more susceptible to stress in this situation?
“It can be really anxiety-inducing, you know, walking in silence. Instantly it can create that sense of stress and anxiety. Breathing is a really good way to support us to calm down some of those stressful feelings that we might be experiencing at that time.
“Also, accepting that right now I’m in an exam, I’m going to feel a bit stressed. Because sometimes when we get stressed or heightened, it can take us out of a physical presence as well. So these things help us come back into the present moment and not freak out about what might happen.”
Keeping calm
Chris Randall is director of mental health and wellbeing at Lindens Primary School in the West Midlands. Having adopted mindfulness techniques across the whole school, Randall and his team now use regular breaks in the school day to help pupils feel calm and to focus on their learning.
“There are key times during the day where children need to just be brought down. One being when they arrive from home in the morning; then after playtime when they’ve been running around and they’ve been kicking a ball; and after lunchtime when there has been a lot of movement in the school.
“Those were the three areas during the day that we decided to introduce some mindfulness and breathwork activities, to enable the pupils to just become a bit more grounded.
“We don’t necessarily call it yoga, we don’t necessarily call it mindfulness, we call it coming back into the body and just becoming a little more settled in order to take on the activities such as English and maths.
For Randall, these practices have had a noticeable impact, so when his Year 6 pupils were facing their Sats, it was an obvious opportunity to utilise the same techniques.
“Prior to them starting the test, I went in and we did some mindful activities and some breath activities so that they were calmer, because you could feel the tension in the classroom. I also worked with the staff because they’re also under enormous pressure.”
Children are embracing the techniques, says Randall. “It’s becoming part of their toolkit to navigate those stressful situations. The feedback that Year 6 gave me last week was that they enjoyed the activities and it calmed them down before being faced with that paper in front of them.”
Listen to the full interviews via the Tes podcast below:
This podcast is sponsored by Thrive, the leading provider of tools and training to help adults support the social and emotional development of children and young people. Find out more by visiting thriveapproach.com
