Middle Years

Savour after a week of examinations

This week our Year 7–11s completed their mid-year examinations. For many of the Middle Years students, particularly Year 7s, this can be a challenging and stressful time. But now that exams are done, somewhere beneath the exhaustion, is a feeling worth paying attention to. It might be quiet, easy to overlook, or quickly buried under the next thing but that feeling, the gentle sense of relief, pride, and accomplishment that follows a challenging period, is one of the most powerful tools we have for building resilience in young people.

At school, we talk often about preparing for exams — study skills, routines, managing nerves. But we talk far less about what to do once they are over. One of the most meaningful things students can do right now is to stop, notice, and genuinely savour what they have just been through and accomplished. Psychological research consistently shows that people, especially young people, tend to move quickly past positive experiences while dwelling far too long on the negative ones. This is often referred to as the negativity bias, and it is deeply human. But it means that unless we consciously pause to appreciate a good feeling, our brains often fail to fully register it.

Savouring is the deliberate act of staying with a positive experience — noticing it, extending it, and letting it sink in. When students take time to acknowledge the effort they put in, the discomfort they pushed through, and the sense of accomplishment on the other side, something important happens in the brain: those positive emotions become more deeply encoded. The message sent is a powerful one — I did something hard, and I got through it. This is a great resource to refer back to when times get tough again in the future.

Well done to the Middle Years students for showing up, pushing through, and finishing their exams. This is genuinely something to feel good about — and savour.