Wellbeing - Parents

Supporting Your Child with Stress:

As Semester 2 begins, we are seeing a noticeable increase in stress levels among students—particularly around assessments and exams. This is not unexpected, but it is something we all need to take notice of and proactively support our students.

It’s important to recognise that stress in itself is not a bad thing. In fact, a certain level of stress can be helpful—it can motivate students to focus, study, and perform at their best. It’s a natural response to challenge and change. However, when stress becomes overwhelming or is not managed well, it can start to interfere with a student’s learning, wellbeing, and overall health.

When stress is ongoing or feels out of control, it can lead to difficulties with concentration, sleep, mood, and even physical health. It can also affect a student’s confidence and performance. That’s why it’s important to be proactive and help your child develop positive habits to manage stress before it becomes unmanageable.

Here are a few ways parents/carers can help ease the pressure:

• Encourage your child to talk about how they’re feeling. Listen without judgement and be mindful of using any language that adds to the pressure they already feel.
• Support your child in planning their study time, breaking tasks into manageable chunks, and setting realistic goals.
• Prioritise sleep, balanced meals, regular exercise, and time for rest and connection with friends and family. These are crucial for managing stress. Students who are experiencing academic pressure /stress often feel they need to study more- spending less time sleeping and socialising and more time studying. There are studies that suggest this is not actually helpful and that the brain does not retain information if students are “cramming” the night before on little to no sleep.

In this link (https://youtu.be/unTtRKx_sFQ), young people talk about feeling stressed as a teenager and the things that parents can do to support them in stressful times.

If you have concerns about your child’s stress levels or need additional support, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the wellbeing team at school.

Parent Support Services

We understand that supporting a young person with mental health concerns can be hard. If you are thinking of engaging some extra support for yourself, or are interested in some information to help with concerns as they arise, please take a look at the document attached which you can use to talk things through. You don’t have to do it on your own!

The Wellbeing Team

Lauren, Steph, Livia, Jess and Ange