2. What is SATs stress?
• Stress that is caused by taking
exams
• It is a mainly physical response
• The body thinks it is under
attack and moves into fight, flight
or freeze
• Hormones & chemicals such as
adrenaline and cortisol are
released
3. Is stress bad for you?
• Everyone needs some stress
• Stress can help motivate you
and get you going in the
morning
• Stress is a problem when
there is too much or too little
of it
4. How stressed are our children
ChildLine Exam Stress Survey 2016 found
• 96% of pupils said they were anxious about
exams
• 59% said that parental pressure was a problem
• 64% said that they had had no support with this
• These pupils may have been offered help but did
not find it effective
• So we will look at what we
can do to help effectively
5.
6. What can you do to help?
• Talk with your child
• Don’t add to the stress
• Look out for signs of stress
• Encourage a healthy life-style
• Encourage breaks and treats
• Get support for yourself if needed
7. Watch for signs of stress
Children and young people who experience stress may:
• worry a lot
• feel tense & be irritable
• get lots of headaches & stomach pains
• sleep badly
• lose interest in food or overeat
• not enjoy activities they did
previously
• seem negative and hopeless
about the future
• cry
8. Healthy life-styles: your role
You can help your child
• Get enough sleep (8-10 hours
each night)
• Have a good breakfast
• Reduce high-fat, high-sugar
and high-caffeine foods and
drinks which can make children
edgy and reduce sleep
• Be active (especially if it is with
done with other people)
• Make time for treats and fun
10. Useful websites and apps
• https://youngminds.org.uk/blogs/exam-self-care/
• https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/for-parents/parents-survival-guide/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zsvcqhv
• The Headspace app
• The SAM app
12. Why is it important to have good
mental health?
Children & young people with good mental health are better at:
• Managing their behaviour
• Coping with difficult situations
and life changes
• Doing well at school
• Making and keeping friends
• Doing well at sports and hobbies
13. Taking the learning away:
The BBC have produced a helpful video for pupils on coping with
exams. Give your children the link so they can have a look for
themselves.
13
Explain to parents that your school offers pupils the MindMate Lessons which are aimed at keeping their children mentally healthy; this slide show is running in conjunction with the lessons and uses the same branding to help reduce the stigma that can be attached to mental health. The aim of the slides is to support parents to help their children cope well with the stresses of exams. In addition the information will help with other stressful situations
When you open the slide allow time for the liquid in the thermometer to go up and down and the emojis change. Some parents will easily be able to remember how exams felt for others it might be useful to remind them of what it was like taking their driving test or delivering a presentation at work.
The slide reminds parents that we all need some stress in our lives and that it can help us to succeed. However, when stress becomes too much it really gets in the way of us doing our best.
The idea here is to help parents see that attitudes such as ‘it never did me any harm’ or being over protective and trying to remove all stress from children’s lives won’t help their children do as well as they could in their exams.
A Childline study came up with the figures above. They are not intended to make parents feel guilty but to show parents that there is a lot that they can do to help their children. If they get it right their children will succeed and remember how their parents have helped them.
Ask parents to think back to the stressful situations they thought abut earlier (slide 2) and whether someone telling them to calm down would have helped. Hopefully they will recognise that it wouldn’t have done much good. Then ask them if they think it will be similar for their children? Hopefully the penny will drop.
So if telling people to calm down doesn't work what can we do? Again emphasise that they have an important role here and can really help.
These ideas are modified from NHS website http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/Coping-with-exam-stress.aspx where there is ore detail on the topic.
See next slide (7) for signs of stress
Slide 8 has more on healthy life-styles
Slides 9 & 10 have more on evidence based revision
Mindfulness could help pupils and/ or their parents; research shows it can reduce stress. Here is a simple explanation of how it works. It is not a magic wand and parents should not try and force their children to take it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To1wAkYjnHU
Apps
Headspace: meditation helps with stress and anxiety, and Headspace aims to make meditation more accessible with 10 short guided meditations, a personalized progress page and reminders to help keep you on track.
A free self-help app for anxiety (SAM app) conceived and co-designed by experts at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) has been downloaded by over 500,000 users from around the globe in over 100 countries since its launch in July 2013. It has been in the top 100 Health and Fitness Apps in 85
Edit this slide to explain to parents what the school will be doing to help pupils such as revision groups, mindfulness.
If parents are unsure of the value of the lessons this sets them out in ways which they will relate to.
You might want to show a short clip from the video so that parents can see what their children will be seeing. Ask them to offer their children the choice of watching it with them or on their own. This will help them feel more supported and less nagged at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AgswlakjRw
Explain that there is a website which has been developed in Leeds to help improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. There is a link to the website embedded in the image.
