Easing the exam stress for teachers

Let’s be clear: the stress of exams doesn’t jump out at us from nowhere.

We don’t get to exam week (or season, if you work in secondary or above!) and feel the ghostly grip of test stress from out of the blue. It’s with us from the beginning of the year, always lurking, ever increasing. 

It creeps up quietly but seems to crescendo all of a sudden! That’s when we notice it.

At this point, there are a few pitfalls we typically find ourselves in as school staff. We can end up absorbing everyone else’s stress: the children, their parents, our colleagues. As a way of managing this influx of emotion, we can minimise our own, assuming the “keep calm and carry on” mentality or the “teacher trudge” as I call it!

In the process, this can leave us feeling like we have to be switched on: always working, ever present. If we dare take a break, the pang of guilt sets us straight back to work, as we start to attach our own worth to the outcome of those exams.

Teaching exam-aged year groups isn’t easy. But hopefully today you’ll take away at least one strategy and one mindset shift to help support you with this year’s exam season.

Reframing stress

This might be the opposite of what you often hear (maybe even from me), but stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing…

There’s a type of stress called eustress: a short, purposeful response to challenge. It helps us rise to the occasion, so to speak. Think of that energy and enthusiasm at the start of an observation, or that burst of focus in a final deadline sprint - if you’re anything like me, you’ll remember the latter well from university.

When paired with recovery, this type of stress can even fuel growth because:

Stress + Rest = Growth

But when stress becomes constant, unrelenting and recovery seems to escape us, that’s when it starts to work against us. That’s what so many of us are walking into exam season already carrying: a year’s worth of pressure on our shoulders.

It’s not just the stress of exam week, either. Even small, manageable stressors can pile up in our system: interventions, booster groups, revision classes. Our brain doesn’t always separate them clearly. Whether it’s a looming deadline, noise in the corridor, a tough conversation, or poor sleep, it all goes into the same “bucket”.

Imagine you’re carrying a six-foot pile of plates around the classroom.

They’re slipping and sliding from side to side, but you’re just about keeping them from falling. However, at some point, something’s going to get added that’s just that tiny bit too much (like an egg cup on top of the tower of plates) and suddenly it all comes crashing down!

It tips us over the edge: the self-criticism starts, the self-talk becomes less than supportive and you feel like a failure.

But you’re not failing, your bucket is simply full. You cannot guilt yourself into growth, and you definitely can’t shame yourself into change, so let’s knock that on the head and start from a place of understanding instead.

Stress of some sort is essential to our survival; without it, we wouldn’t get anything done. But in order for us to manage it, recovery is essential too…

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Strengthen your capacity cup

If you’re going to manage the pressure of exam season, it actually starts long before exam season, and it starts with strengthening your capacity…

You know what it’s like - exam pressure pours in from every direction. You might not be able to stop the pouring, but you can strengthen the cup (with proactive strategies); add a lid (through boundaries); and poke small holes in the bottom (with reactive rest).

That means setting yourself up with simple, healthy habits that give you more capacity in the first place:

• planning your day ahead

• keeping your phone off the pillow

• taking 15 minutes in the morning just for you

These are the things that help you feel more calm, collected and in control before stress kicks in.

Once the cup feels stronger, we can start to think about boundaries - the lid on the top. It won’t block everything out, but even a leaky lid helps slow the pour. That might mean

• saying no, protecting your time

• remembering that other people’s urgency doesn’t always have to become your emergency.

And finally, we’ve got to think about letting some of that stress back out.

That’s where your reactive strategies come in, the bitesize actions you can turn to when the pressure’s building. The quick wins that help you come back to calm:

• breathwork

• a walk

• a laugh with someone who gets it

• just pausing long enough to ask: what do I actually need right now?

Regulate, reframe, refill

So, you’ve got your foundations fixed in place. You feel like you’re headed into the exam season set up as best you can be, with as much capacity as possible. 

But how do we manage the test week(s) themselves, support our students as best we can and look after ourselves in the process?

I like to use a really simple system called the 3Rs for pinch points like exam season. Similar to the Capacity Cup, it gives us 3 small steps we can take each and every day, if only for a few minutes, to help us manage the stressors we face.

Regulate

You can’t think straight, problem-solve, or support others if you’re dysregulated. We know it with the children, it’s time we acknowledged it for ourselves, too.

The first step is to calm your central nervous system from the stressors. Think of it as moving away from fight or flight and towards rest and reset.

• Try a daily decompression: a short pause in your day that tells your body, "You’re safe now." This might be 30 seconds at the sink, 3 minutes in the car, or five deep breaths between lessons.

• Use grounding strategies like box breathing, hand-trace breathing, or the physiological sigh (two inhales, one slow exhale). These help move you out of “fight or flight” and into a calmer state.

• Step outside and look up, even a 5-minute horizon gaze or leaning your back against a tree can start to settle your nervous system.

• Use your car as a spa on wheels - music, scent, silence, snacks, podcasts, hand cream, whatever feels good. That car might be the only place you’re not needed by someone else.

• Notice the signs in your own body: tight chest, racing thoughts, tension in your jaw. You’re not weak for feeling overwhelmed at any point, you’re human!

Then we can…

Reframe

We can’t control the outcome of the tests, and we’re not meant to. But we can choose how we show up for ourselves and our students.

• Remember: “I can support, but I can’t save.” You’re not responsible for their outcome, only your input in the process.

• Remind yourself: a mark or grade is not a measure of the children’s worth, and it’s definitely not a measure of yours.

• “Emotions are information, not identity.” That fear, stress or guilt is your body trying to protect you. It’s not who you are.

• Come back to your circle of control. Your boundaries, your breath, your body. Focus there.

• Gently challenge the stories: “If I don’t do this, I’ve failed” or “If I’m not stressed, I’m not doing enough.” You don’t have to be on fire to prove you’re a good teacher.

And finally, with a fresh perspective, we can start to…

Refill

This is the one we’re quickest to skip, but it’s the one that fuels you and allows you to feel and be at your best again tomorrow.

Refilling doesn’t mean you have to take a day off or go to a luxury spa in the evening. You can fit in these small, purposeful types of nourishment in just a few minutes:

• A proper meal instead of just picking at toast crusts from breakfast club.

• A 20-minute lie-down without your phone when you get home.

• Doing something you enjoy, watching something that makes you laugh, spending some time with a loved one.

• Saying no to one thing, just for today, so you can do the above.

If you can take even just a few moments for yourself throughout the day to check in against these three reminders, you’ll help yourself feel calmer, more grounded and in control as we head into exam season. You deserve that.

One last reminder…

I want to leave you with one final thought. You know it, I know it, but we often forget it:

The impact you’ve had this year simply cannot be measured by a one-time test.

The way you’ve shown up, supported, listened, adapted, and cared for others doesn’t disappear because a paper says 72% not 92%.

Take a moment to redefine what success means for you in this season. Forget the results for a moment (not common advice, I know) and think about what else you want the children you teach to take away.

And, for you, celebrate your successes! Write them down: the small wins, the hard days you got through, the relationships you built, the pupils you helped feel seen. Ultimately, that’s what really matters. And if you’re not taken care of, none of that happens.

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Find out more about SATs Springboard and get a free trial with your year 6s.