As exam season hots up, we have a range of lesson ideas and resources to help teachers ensure students keep their cool.
There are some lucky people who relish exams. They enjoy the pressure and, in some bizarre way, it brings out the best in them.
For the rest of us mere mortals, however, tests are a source of anxiety and stress.
At a time when schools are already struggling to cope with demand for support as councils cut their youth mental health services provision, it's even more essential that this year's exam season goes as smoothly as possible.
So as exam season hots up, we have a range of lesson ideas and resources to help you ensure your students keep cool.
One of pupils' main worries is that they won't be able to remember everything when they get into the exam hall, according to Elevate Education, an organisation that offers study skills advice. It recommends a number of techniques to help settle students' nerves including: creating mind maps of information rather than writing out notes over and over again; explaining a topic to a parent or friend; and avoiding a last-minute cram outside the exam hall because it will only lead to higher levels of stress.
Jim's Exam Advice is a list of practical tips on preparing for and performing well in exams. Suggestions include getting a good sleep the night before – assuming your anxiety allows – and doing your "best" question first to create a feel good factor. The list of tips could act as a handy stimulus for a discussion about techniques that pupils find effective. Then, working in groups, ask them to create advice guides of their own. They could even write a revision rap (as I remember doing in my year 11 English class. I can still hear the first lines of it: "Don't be a dope, get down to that revision, instead of being lazy, and watching television.")
Another idea is to ask students to have a go at writing their own exam-style questions. In this maths-based activity pupils are presented with a calculation that they must write a question for. They are then asked to consider any mistakes that students might make and how they would explain to them where they went wrong. The aim is to boost students' confidence when faced with exam questions they were not expecting. This revision strategies poster also has a maths theme.
To help students stay calm during an exam, try these tips on meditation and mindfulness from the organisation Mind Space. Resources include a five-minute breathing exercise and a 15-minute relaxation exercise designed to help pupils focus on positive emotions.
Relaxed and ready to learn is an audio track that can be used at exam time and throughout the school year to help students clear their minds and focus. Created by Relax Kids, it combines deep muscle relaxation, visualisation and positive affirmation techniques intended to improve concentration levels. Students might also find this stress management presentation useful.
The stress of exams can be amplified for students who have suffered a recent bereavement or have a family member who is seriously ill. Child Bereavement UK has produced guidance for schools looking for special consideration advice along with information on supporting young people who are grieving.
The National Deaf Children's Society has created a really useful set of animations to help deaf young people ask for support at exam time. The animations can also be used by students who are trying to make decisions about college and apprenticeships.
Along with pupils and teachers, the exam season is a stressful time for parents, so the Guardian Teacher Network has produced some advice for them too. There are tips from experts on matters such as: encouraging your child, knowing when to back off, and reassuring them that everything will be ok even if they don't do as well as expected. There is further advice for parents and teenagers on coping with exam stress on the NSPCC website.
For more ideas, check out the articles How to teach … revision, Five Secrets of Successful Revising, How Your Brain Likes to be Treated at Exam Time, and Revision Tips.
