Exam revision & anxiety: Practical tips to support your GCSE students.
Click here to watch this webinar on catch-up
The webinar discussed how we can support students who are stressed and anxious about their impending examinations. We offered tips for exam preparation, including revision ideas and advice, and looked at how schools can prepare their environment for success.
We considered how we can spot students who are struggling as their exams approach and what kind of “in the moment” interventions might help in the run-up to or indeed on exam day – including strategies to calm and support panicking, overwhelmed or anxious students.
Meet our guests
Dr Pooky Knightsmith is a passionate ambassador for mental health, wellbeing and PSHE. Her work is backed up both by a PhD in child and adolescent mental health and her own lived experience of PTSD, anorexia, self-harm, anxiety and depression. Pooky is director of Creative Education.
Christian Lloyd is head of year 9 and lead practitioner for alternative provision at The Cooper School, an 11 to 18 comprehensive school with 1,300 students in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Christian works with students via three fields – SEND, behaviour and attendance. He provides external and internal opportunities for these students via a range of county-wide provisions. He was recently named TT Education’s Teacher of the Year for Alternative Provision.
Natalie Kelly is head of year 10 and lead practitioner for rewards at The Kings, an 11 to 18 academy with 726 students in Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent. In particular, Natalie's work has included a focus on supporting students' revision and homework for the past three years, including via the use of online platforms.
Sandro Capozzi is executive headteacher at Academy21, a UK-wide provider of online alternative provision.
The webinar tackled a number of key questions
- With the summer 2024 GCSE exam series beginning on May 6, how should students tackle their last-minute revision? What does effective revision look like at this stage?
- What role can teachers/schools play at this stage to support revision and preparation?
- What kind of wellbeing advice can we offer students to help them handle the stress and anxiety that exams create? What can teachers do?
- What kind of health advice can we offer (diet, hydration, caffeine, sleep/naps, leisure time, exercise)?
- On the day: What techniques can students use to keep calm? What can school staff do to support students (tips for talking to stressed students; how can we calm students if they panic)?
- Case studies: We heard from two schools about their approaches for supporting students’ exam preparation, revision and wellbeing
- We also took questions from the live webinar audience
Our webinar partners
Academy21 is an online alternative provision specialist which works in partnership with schools and local authorities to help students re-engage with their education. Academy21’s range of provision is designed to provide vulnerable students with access to the high-quality education they need and deserve. Visit https://academy21.co.uk/alternative-provision
The SecEd Webinar offers best practice, advice, tips and ideas for the secondary school. Aimed at senior and middle leaders, classroom teachers and wider school staff, the webinar is free and you can register to receive notifications ahead of every edition by going to www.bigmarker.com/series/the-seced-webinar1/series_summit