Teach Secondary -Issue 15.1

process themselves. What are their tips on how to take restorative breaks? How did they set themselves manageable targets? Staff will want to review and check the advice given first, of course – but that kind of wisdom can be really helpful for students to hear from others who have gone through it themselves. ATHOME 1. Children can tell us what they need When working with parents on issues relating to exam stress, I’ve often said that the best advice they can get on how to support their child will come from the child themselves – because they’re the ones actually living it. Parents should understand that their role isn’t to just ‘support their child’s revision’, but to help them with the process of managing medium- to low-level stress over time. This means making sure their child gets enough rest and has things to look forward to – it’s unhealthy for a child to be thinking about exams all the time. Parents also need to be alert for acute stress, know how to help their child with this, and where to go for professional medical / therapeutic support if it’s needed. 2. Familiarise parents with the process Staff in schools are nowmuch more alert and attentive to following up on serious wellbeing concerns than in years gone by, and should be justly proud of their work in this area. Another area that perhaps needs to be thought about more, however, is what schools can do to help parents understand what the GCSE process involves. Staff can be naturally wary of transgressing onto ‘telling parents how to parent’, but bear inmind that secondary schooling can often be virtually invisible to most parents. Partly because most teens don’t want to talk about school at home, but also because parents’ perceptions can be distorted by memories of their own schooldays. Some parents may have attended the very same school as their child, been taught in the same buildings and sat exams in same subjects – but the exam experience for a Y11 today will be radically different from that of 20 or 30 years ago. If schools don’t help parents understand what it’s like today, it becomes harder for them to know how they can help. 3. Schools are limited in what they can do Many schools now offer webinars or after-school presentations aimed at informing parents about the procedures and processes surrounding exams. Whatever parental communicationmethod you use, be aware that there’s real value in thinking about what parents need to understand, and what they presently might not. Different teenagers will go through school with wildly differing levels of parental support, which itself may be highly variable in terms of how effective it is. Schools can’t simply wave a magic wand and have every parent do as every parent should – but the more clearly a school can describe what effective support looks like, the easier it will be for parents to move in that direction. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Katharine Radice is an author, teacher and education consultant, currently teaching part-time at both a mixed ability comprehensive school and at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and regularly runs workshops for students, teachers and parents on exam stress; her new book, The Parents’ Guide to Exam Stress , is due for publication in March 2026 WHEN EXAM ROOMSTRESS HITS... Remember that acute stress is a fear response, which means that your body’s physical response must be calmed down in order to free up time and space for clarity of thought. Deep breathing is hugely effective for calming the body’s physical response There are useful phrases you can recite (quietly or silently) to reassure yourself that you’re fine, that you’re safe, and that this will pass. to judge their own work – and how far it is from meeting that standard. As adults, we know that how good someone is at maths doesn’t define them as a person. And yet, right now, your Y11s are being graded and marked on their performance in different subjects via methods that are quantified and highly visible – but which won’t be used to measure, for example, their kindness or resilience. So even when exams are looming, make sure there’s some celebration of school- based achievements that aren’t just related to grades. 3. Peer interactions Often, the advice students value most will tend to come from their peers. Make room for your Y11s (and Y12s, if applicable) to share how they’ve managed the revision 29 teachwire.net/secondary TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL GCSEs G C S E s