This week marks the start of exam season, and as a school we are here to support pupils and parents and carers, through what can feel like a stressful time, providing advice and guidance on how best to support our GCSE pupils across this time.
We know that families are often anxious about how much revision their children should be doing, and our staff provide suggested study plans for all students as well as wellbeing advice that families can use to support their children at home which helps to relieve some parental stress.
Our BGS Wellbeing Hub is a fantastic resource across this time - there are many resources available in different formats that can really help and support children at home. These range from supporting with anxiety and stress, through to relaxation and study support.
I would always suggest modelling calmness at home as much as possible too – as a parent of a child in Year 10 this is something I’ll be putting this into practice myself next year! Young people often pick up on heightened anxiety in the home and therefore prioritising self-care as a family, even practising meditation with your children can help to create a calm environment for everyone.
Knowing your children are in safe hands at school always helps too and we’ve developed a programme of support for our pupils that offers various touchpoints leading up to and across exams. Our Sixth Form Peer Mentors are trained to reassure and help pupils, sharing revision techniques and their own personal exam experience too. All children have weekly wellbeing sessions that provide practical advice and techniques for revision, so this is well practiced before they reach GCSEs and tutors, and wellbeing leads offer self-care recommendations and opportunities for students to share experience and tips across different year groups.
We also understand that whilst study leave is valuable for many pupils, we also ensure that study provision is available inside school for those that prefer the routine and structure of learning and revising in the school environment.
The BGS mental health toolkits (presented to pupils earlier in the year) are particularly valuable during GCSEs, providing resources such as grounding techniques and meditations. These tools are essential life skills that can be drawn upon and extremely useful to maintain wellbeing across periods of exam stress.
We are already supporting our Year 10’s in preparation for next year’s exams, with informal coffee sessions for families ahead of GCSEs, where they can meet each other and we can answer questions and offer guidance.
Good luck to everyone across this exam period!
Jaideep Barot, Head of BGS