How School Leaders Can Support Teachers in Managing Student Exam Stress

School exam stress is an ongoing and challenging problem for many schools, but teachers often feel unprepared to manage student stress. Introducing specific professional development training in this area can help staff with the knowledge and resources they need to support students at this challenging time.

Teaching and Pastoral Staff often feel ill-equipped to deal with exam stress situations. Whilst 1:1 interventions are usually offered by support staff, sharing a school wide approach to stress can increase and improve the level of care available.

Dealing with stressed students on a regular basis needs a good level of understanding and sound solutions. And though Teachers may feel able to deal with the more common shows of stress, training can help to fill the gaps.

Not only does this spread stress awareness throughout the staff team, it also takes some of the pressure off the Pastoral Teams who may generally step in for specific 1:1 on small group work.

With stress management awareness training, Teachers can feel more confident in recognising and reacting to early warning signs in their students. This helps their colleagues by introducing remedies and practical solutions early.

This helps them offer students more timely ways of managing their stress which in turn can reduce the long-term effects and repercussions if stress goes un=checked for a period.

Training gives emotional and specialist support

Training teachers in stress awareness also helps staff recognise signs within themselves. As they learn more, they may feel able to apply the training to their own stress levels around exams.

Training shares the responsibility and increases the chances of stress being identified in both the student and teaching body.

When staff come together to train on a topic, it creates tighter bonds of community and provided a place where teachers can talk about their personal and professional experiences.

It can become a place where everyone can share concerns and feel able to talk about the problems that come up.

Providing Exam Stress Support is vital for both Students and Staff

We often over stress the challenge in students and yet don’t address the stress levels that teachers can feel during the exam season.

The benefits of training to the whole school

Whilst the focus and initial purpose of staff training may be to understand Student Stress, specific training on exam anxiety can’t help but have an added bonus: applying this learning to their own experience of stress.

In the process, training offers staff:

• A way of building personal confidence in addressing student exam anxiety
• Helps them recognise the early signs of stress and long-term challenges
• Teaches participants how to think well
• Shows teachers how to manage thoughts and feelings
• Offers practical ways to de-frag and release worry
• Develops teachers’ own exam resilience

What can training do for your School?

The repercussions of topic specific training can result in a more resilient workforce. These may be some of the results you might see after your staff complete Exam Stress training.

• Teachers can feel more settled and able to manage their responses to their workload and their students
• They can feel re-energised in their commitment and focus
• More engaged with their students and their colleagues
• Contribute more to their community
• Feel more connected to the school and their purpose
• Less dis-illusioned and dis-engaged
• Sickness levels will stabilise
• Retention will improve with less resignations

Training shows your staff that you promote a positive exam culture. It sends the signal that as a school your focus is more on growth, learning and well being, as opposed to the high pressure environment where results are everything.

By giving Teachers a way to recognise their own signs of stress, you make it easier for them to see it in their colleagues and their students. And by being able to see the signs in others , they can step in early before it has a chance to develop into a long term more challenging problem.

No one wants to lose Teachers to burn out.  By offering staff Exam Stress Training you help them understand how exam stress shows itself and how to help their students manage their reactions to stay calm and in control.

In the process your teachers will be able to apply the learning first to themselves. And their colleagues.

Providing a Teacher Training learning environment, you show staff you value the wellbeing of the whole school, and show them how collectively you can help everyone perform at their best when they feel up against it.