How we can prepare our children for exam results

For most children and young adults, exams are an extremely stressful time. There is a lot of pressure to ‘get everything right’ be able to answer every question, and not ‘let themselves down.’

In fact, a recent study found that exam results directly influence a child’s self-esteem. The higher the grade, the better they will feel about themselves.

Exam time can also be a challenging time for youngsters because they often come before a major change. This could be a new school, new lessons, or even right before they leave for University. 

Around exam season, schools, colleges, and universities put a huge amount of effort into creating helpful study guides, study sessions and trying to help young people as much as possible during this difficult time.

Preparing your child for receiving their results, whether it’s a month, week, or even the night before, is really important and can help them to cope, whatever their results may be.

Worrying about what questions they may have answered incorrectly, whether they let themselves or their school down, and trying to imagine their future can all run through young peoples’ heads right before they receive their results. It’s a stressful time.

Something which can really help banish those negative voices is meditation.

By practising meditation, you are teaching yourself to get rid of all of those unwanted thoughts and feelings that cloud your judgement-worries about what questions you answered correctly, or whether you did enough revision, can create feelings of tension and affect confidence.

Meditation helps to calm those nerves and make you focus-lots of professional athletes and musicians are known to meditate right before they go into the spotlight because it helps them to focus on their goal.

I wish all students the best of luck in their exam results.

If you would like to find out more information on the power of positive thinking, browse my website or write me an email today!

Sheila. 

Endeavour School use hypnotist to help pupils with exams

"The work we have been doing with Sheila is to ensure students are in the best frame of mind when they sit their exams"

STUDENTS at a city school are being hypnotised to relieve exam stress.

Clinical hypnotherapist Sheila Granger has been working with GCSE students at Endeavour High School on techniques to help them through the exam period.

Teachers say the initiative is paying dividends, with students being better prepared than ever.

The Beverley Road school closes this summer and headteacher Stewart Edgell is determined youngsters will go out on a high.

He said: "We want the school to go out on a high this year, but ultimately we want our students to achieve the very best results that they can individually.

"The work we have been doing with Sheila is to ensure students are in the best frame of mind when they sit their exams, and that any barriers to them performing at their best have been removed.

NEW TECHNIQUES: Headteacher Stewart Edgell and Sheila Granger with pupils. Picture: Jack Harland

"If you have a student who is worried and you bring someone in who can help them by arming them with new strategies and coping mechanisms, they feel valued that someone has taken note of their concerns and is doing something with them.

"When you get a critical mass of students being looked after in this way, it's much more likely everyone will perform better across the board."

Mr Edgell said the school has worked hard with its 101 students to ensure they achieve the best results they can.

He said: "We brought Sheila in to work with students who we identified that would benefit from additional strategies for preparing for their exams, adopting a positive mindset and believing that they can do it when it comes to achieving their potential.

"We have worked with our students to help them structure their revision carefully and Sheila's work has dovetailed nicely into that in terms of giving them a positive outlook and creative ways of preparing for exams."

'Massive student pressure

Sheila Granger, clinical hypnotherapist, said: "With exam season well and truly upon us, the pressure on students gains considerable momentum at this time of year.

"I have been delighted to work with Endeavour High School in the run up to this important time of year and it's been a real pleasure to work with the students there.

"We all have expectations placed on us, either by ourselves or by others, and it's these expectations that can cause us the greatest stress".

If you are interested in any of my services or need some questions answering, feel free to contact me via email or visit my website. 

Exam stress and believing you can do it!

"we all have expectations placed on us, either by ourselves or by others, and it’s these expectations that can cause us the greatest stress"

Many of us will be able to recall how nerve-racking it can be to take an exam. Butterflies in our stomach, sweaty palms, a racing heart and panicking that we won’t be able to remember anything we’ve learnt are all common feelings before an exam.

But, when I recently read that children as young as ten were smoking cigarettes to prepare for their exams I was in utter shock. The poll of 1,000 youngsters, who took Key Stage Two SATS last year, also found the students are gorging on junk food and drinking energy drinks for breakfast.

This just proves that there is definitely a huge demand for children to be equipped with skilled coping techniques to get them through this stressful time of year. So, recently I have stepped back into the classroom to help pupils maximise their potential before the exam season got underway.

I have been busy working with several local schools and students, conducting a range of group and one-to-one sessions with the aim of instilling coping strategies that allow everyone to perform to their best ability.

What’s interesting is that, we all have expectations placed on us, either by ourselves or by others, and it’s these expectations that can cause us the greatest stress. Students with low expectations who believe they are going to fail, find it difficult to think positively – which ultimately impacts their performance.

This mind-set is called premature cognitive commitment, which, in a nutshell, means that if you don’t believe you can do something, you won’t even try despite never reassessing whether your belief is true or not.

Take this story of the Indian elephant as an example. A baby elephant is chained to a big tree and the elephant will struggle against the shackles, but only for a period of time. It then gives in to the belief that as long as there is something around its foot, it no longer has free will. Once it’s fully grown, it can be tied by a flimsy rope to a small plant and it will not try to escape - despite the fact that it would be able to!

In much a similar way, top performing students have to contend with the weight of increased expectations and the pressure to deliver can set them up for a fall. Belief has so much to do with it. 

We are all guilty of negative self-talk, both young and old, which can easily turn a good day into a very bad one. My work is all about changing this mind-set.

For teachers, there is already huge emphasis on the delivery of pastoral care and teachers have the added role of coaching individuals through the exam experience, as well as preparing them academically.

Teachers will give pupils their exam dates and the material needed to study but don’t always teach the children to plan their revision. And it is the things that we don’t plan for that make us stressed.

Helping students through this important milestone can be challenging, especially as schools are constantly under the spotlight when it comes to results. It’s really not unusual for schools and colleges to incorporate alternative methods of dealing with student issues such as exam stress.

Many schools have even gone one step further to alleviate the pressure on teachers by creating permanent therapist positions, hiring counsellors and holding mindfulness and meditation lessons, where they work with psychiatrists and therapists on a more regular basis.

It’s natural to feel nervous before taking any test, let alone one that could help shape your entire future, but using the power of suggestion and visualisation techniques will encourage students to clear their racing mind and approach the exam with a cool, calm state of mind.

I wish all students taking exams at the moment the very best of luck.

Sheila x

For information on how one of Sheila's accredited practitioners can help you achieve your goals, visit http://www.sheilagranger.com/pages/lifestyle