School stress hits new peak as exams loom
Our children are the most tested in the world, and schools are having to hire ever more counsellors to help them, reports education correspondent Anushka Asthana Sunday May 20, 2007The Observer
Thousands of pupils are suffering from unprecedented levels of 'exam stress' according to experts dealing with the fallout from the UK's testing culture.
Unprecedented numbers of psychologists are now having to help pupils deal with the emotional strain - which can lead to sleepless nights, eating disorders and other illnesses.
Nurses at hundreds of schools in south-east England are being trained to pinpoint the symptoms of stress that build to a peak during the exam period.
The scheme, being launched as more than a million teenagers embark on their GCSEs, AS and A-levels and primary schools complete their Standard Assessment Tests, will be rolled out nationally.
'There is now a constant process of revision and examination and lots of students do not cope,' said Vivian Hill, an educational psychologist at the Institute of Education. 'These are the most tested children in the world.'
Hill, who runs training sessions on how to reduce anxiety, has seen children with 'pushy parents' and those in failing schools fall physically ill from stress.
She blamed in part the two years following GCSEs that were once free of exams as students worked towards their A-levels. Now they are crammed full of AS levels and the extra revision they bring.
Meanwhile, Place2Be - a charity offering emotional support to primary school children - has seen a massive increase in the numbers of pupils approaching counsellors about exams.
The charity runs a project called Place2Talk in 113 schools where children can post requests to see a counsellor into postboxes placed in the school buildings. So far 70 per cent of the children in the schools have asked for support.
Sheridan Whitfield, a manager for the charity in London, said children from the age of five were able to place requests for a chat into postboxes placed in the school. 'Children are accessing it more for exam worries.'
The relentless pressure means psychologists are being called into schools at an increasing rate, according to Hill: 'We are doing this in a way that we were not doing it five years ago.'
She said 10 senior colleagues now visited schools on a weekly basis working with children, teachers and parents. 'In one case we had a father who wanted to send his child to a psychologist because they were at the bottom of the A band and not the top. What makes someone behave so unreasonably?'
Earlier this month teachers claimed that children as young as nine were becoming disillusioned with school because of the pressure to pass tests. A report by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said that league tables were pushing schools to drop interesting lessons in favour of drilling pupils for exams with a 'spoon-feeding approach'.
Ken Boston, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, has said children are over-tested while the powerful all-party education select committee is about to launch a major inquiry into the issue.
Experts at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) and the mental health charity Rethink are so concerned about rising levels of stress they have launched the south-east England pilot scheme to train nurses to help anxious pupils.
Starting with hundreds of schools in south London, the project is being funded by the Health Foundation.
'We ought to be thinking about stress at this time of year,' said Andre Tylee, professor of primary care mental health at the IoP. 'Constant assessment does cause stress in a significant minority and this will be a key part of what we do to help schools.'
Exam time must be treated as 'high risk' by headteachers, according to Tylee, whose work will help nurses recognise early signs of anxiety and pick up where a pupil may feel suicidal: 'They may know when someone is stressed but what about when that tips into depression or mental health problems?' he said.
The fact that psychologists are starting to take stress in schools seriously was welcomed by students. 'Exam stress always comes up as the top issue,' said Rajeeb Dey, founder of the English Secondary Students' Association. 'Schools bringing in educational psychologists is a wise move.'
Different types of sessions are running in schools up and down the country. Staff at the Institute of Education have helped set up a 'stress-busting' session at Burntwood school, a large comprehensive in south London that caters for pupils aged 11 to 19.
Mary Holden, head of learning support at the school, now runs sessions for individuals or small groups where she teaches them how to calm down through breathing techniques, among others.
'If someone becomes stressed we give them more attention,' said Holden. 'If someone is incredibly anxious and it is affecting their performance then we may put them somewhere separate [to take the exam].'
Last week Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist who focuses on stress issues, gave a talk to AS and A-level students about how to keep calm and do their best in exams.
As well as offering advice on how to manage their time she gave tips on how to eat, sleep and exercise. Students were advised to eat proteins when revising and carbohydrates when winding down. Caffeine was to be avoided.
For those suffering sleepless nights she advised power naps in the day, using an alarm clock out of reach to wake them up. 'A 15-minute power nap is worth one sleep cycle at night [or] one and a half hours,' she said. Where she was able to talk to students six weeks before exams she recommended regular aerobics.
Elsewhere headteachers have turned to alternative techniques such as massage to help pupils cope. At a school in Staffordshire holistic therapist and former teacher Frances Latham uses breathing and visualisations to help stop panic attacks.
There are also private options for parents who are particularly worried about their children. Tim Francis, a chartered educational psychologist, works with pupils in the most extreme cases where they completely freeze during the exams.
He also offers advice over the internet that suggests students tense and relax muscles up and down their entire body. Such techniques were once shunned by schools but headteachers are increasingly turning to them.
'It is becoming more common for young people and parents to report unpleasant effects at this time because they are concerned about examinations,' said Martin Ward, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. 'It is not just GCSEs; the Key Stage two and three SATs are impacting on younger children who are less able to cope with the pressure.'
Graham Taylor, the former vicar who is now the bestselling author of the children's book Shadowmancer, said children were terrified by the number of exams they faced.
'My daughter is eight years old,' he said. 'She is year three at a school. She has taken two days off sick this week for the stress of two weeks of exams.'
Taylor, who visited 250 schools last year to give motivational talks, blamed an obsession with testing. 'The education system is in crisis,' he added. The answer was not better exams but 'happier children'.
For some parents, the pressures are far too high. Hazel Hallows, a mother-of-three from Manchester, said that children had enough additional worries about fitting in. 'They have got enough to worry about,' she said, 'and then on top of that is whether they get the grades for college.'
But while too much stress is without doubt a bad thing, a few nerves are exactly what children need. On The Parent Organisation, a parents' support website, a poll has been asking whether children responded badly to exam pressure. Yesterday, the answer was no for 62.5 per cent of parents.