Stress and Students

Assisting students to manage their stress levels through the assessment period is important for both teachers and families alike. Done well, it will not only benefit their overall wellbeing but will also assist students in demonstrating their academic growth through their assessment.

Here are some strategies our teachers put in place through this assessment period:

• Create a supportive environment
  Our teachers are working hard to maintain a supportive classroom environment where students have opportunities to express their concerns and seek help, especially around assessment. Obviously, teachers will need to prompt and encourage students less subtly at times, which can feel like the spotlight is on them. However, the intent is to guide them towards success.

As teachers continually encourage open communication with their students, it is important that students reach out if they need assistance. This can be done in many different ways. For many students, emailing their teachers directly is a more comfortable method than asking in the classroom. This is, of course, one of the benefits of the 1-1 Laptop program at the College.

• Normalise Stress
  As much as we want to shield students are they grow and develop, it is important that we normalise the feelings associated with stress and provide students with strategies that manage stress levels. Feelings associated with stress are a normal part of life and it is best that student learn how to deal with it while school age and the stakes are low.

There are many different techniques for dealing with stressful moments and many come back to controlling one’s breathing. Scientific research highlights that copying a relaxed breathing pattern can calm the nervous system, which controls many of the body’s involuntary functions. Controlled breathing can cause physiological changes that include lowering a person’s heart rate and reducing the stress hormones in the blood. With that in mind, the old saying of now take a deep breath actually had more weight to it than we may have originally thought.

Sleep is another critical factor to prioritise through assessment periods. The science indicates that as students hit teenage years, the shift in their biology through the changes associated with puberty will naturally shift their body clock creating a tendency to stay up later. However, obligations associated with school, extra-curricular activities and family commitments make it increasingly more difficult to get enough sleep. Technology is also a contributing factor to the sleep decline in teenagers. Devices and games intentionally stimulate the brain, which in turn makes it harder for students to get that sleepy feeling around their bedtime. A routine around sleep can be extremely beneficial at establishing quality sleep habits for students.

The table below is a breakdown of the recommended hours of sleep for teenagers.

While I acknowledge that every student is different, some may in fact require more than the recommended amount of sleep per night. While others may get by for a period with less sleep, there are indicators that students may be developing a sleep debt, like struggling with emotional regulation, becoming more forgetful or irritable. It can even lead to increased periods of illness and poor emotional health.

Below are some infographics highlighting the consequences of stress and ways to reduce student stress levels through the assessment period.

Year 7 Praxis
Service learning is an educational approach that integrates meaningful community service with academic instruction. It allows students to apply what they have learnt in the classroom discussions to real-world issues.

Students can benefit from this approach in many ways. These include:

• Enhanced learning experience where knowledge is strengthened by connecting to real-world experience.
• Students develop a sense of civic responsibility and citizenship as they actively contribute to their communities.
• Students gain practical skills, leadership experience, and a sense of purpose.
• Service learning can also benefit the local school community as well as wider communities in the area and beyond.

Through their Praxis class, our Year 7 students, have been learning about how young people can make a real difference in the lives of others, and ultimately themselves. By focusing on the Orange Sky charity, students have learnt the story of Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett who founded the charity not long after leaving high school. Below is clip narrated by the founders that tells how a couple of 20 years olds in Brisbane had an idea and decided to do something about it.

Our Year 7 students, for their service-learning opportunity, have been engaging with the Containers for Change scheme here at the College. This project links nicely with one of the Catholic Social Teachings – Stewardship for the Earth - as they experience how a little bit of sweat and effort can turn trash into treasure.

 

This year, in just two weeks of depositing the sorted containers, students have already deposited over 1,300 containers and raised $138.70 towards their total. Class groups are still working through the process of determining how the money will be distributed this year, with the focus on things that benefit Middle Years students. Last year, money went towards two sets of the 9 Square in the Air game that students used during lunch breaks and other games that students can play in the outdoor classroom during break times. It also helped fund the Big Breaky project our Senior students ran on a Monday morning by supplying poppers that would then feed back into the Year 7 Praxis project as rubbish.  

Here is a message from two of our Year 7 students with their explanation of the project:

From Coleen Dimal and McKenzie Meacle-Lyell

For Praxis, Grade 7 has been linking to Containers for Change. While doing this project we have learnt that we can make our world a better place. Recycling these bottles and poppers can help the world a lot as it reduces landfill waste. This year between all three Year 7 classes, we have a three-way rotation. One class sort the containers, one class will take last week’s collection to the centre, and the other class will do theory where we reflect on practice, refine our thinking, and try to come up with ways to make the Middle Years better for kids.

When we sort out the containers, we put them in categories such as cans, glass, plastic and poppers. In teams, we collect the bins from each sector - Early Years, Middle Years and Senior Years. With all the money raised, we can spend it on the students such as sporting equipment and games. With the money we make were also able to give back to others, giving back to others is super important because it allows us to make a positive impact in their lives. Make sure to tell your child at home that it means a lot to us if you put your bottles or poppers in the right bin! The whole point of this on why we’re doing this is to make our world a better place so please make sure you’re putting the right things in the right bin!

On the behalf or Grade 7 cohort if you have any spare containers at home that you wouldn’t mind donating please use the code below

Here are some of our Year 7s working on their Praxis project:

Craig Cullen

Assistant Principal Middle Years