I have been asked for some suggestions for year 11 students who are experiencing some anxiety and stress in the "thick" of end Semester assessment. I have three suggestions that can help any student (or staff member) who may be feeling a little overwhelmed in coming weeks.

1. Mindfulness / meditation. This is “the best medicine” for stress / anxiety and has a host of well researched benefits.Smiling mind have some great stuff for all ages. Click here for an example that might be helpful to your students. Invite those that like it to download the Smiling Mind app on their phone or access you tube.

2. Another stress/anxiety buster at this time is for students to manage their schedules, mapping out their priorities and ensuring they don’t leave things until the last minute, which will result in more stressed neural pathways, lower concentration and lower performance. They might like to map out their next couple of weeks on a hard copy schedule like the one attached in order to manage their effort and energy. If they don’t plan their energy and effort and do the work they need to do- of course they’ll be anxious- and so they should!

3. One final thing- spacing (distributed practice) is far better than cramming (massed practice). Kids can always do with a gentle reminder about that- but it is also good to have the research behind what we say.

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