How you can help your teen as they navigate the stress and workload of year 12 exams
Parents can be even more anxious than their kids during year 12 exams. Here’s how experts say mums and dads should support their teens at this stressful time.
Year 12 exam time is not just stressful for students – it can be a tricky period for parents to navigate as well.
But experts say there are simple things mums and dads can do that help their children achieve their best.
Dianne Giblin, chief executive of parent body the Australian Council of State School Organisations, said it was most important to create “a supportive home environment that helps students stay calm, organised and healthy”.
Ms Giblin said communication with teens was also essential, encouraging parents to “keep communication open with gentle, non-judgmental check-ins” and to ask simple questions like “how are you feeling today?”
Professor Jennie Hudson, director of research at the Black Dog Institute, said parents should remind their year 12s to look after their wellbeing by sleeping and eating normally, as well as taking breaks from study.
“The importance of the fundamental things for mental health and stress as you go through difficult periods are things that seem so simple, but we cannot underestimate their power and they are often the things that go,” Professor Hudson said.
This advice is even more pertinent for Professor Hudson as her own child sits HSC exams in NSW this year.
She also stressed parents should focus on encouragement, not putting pressure on students to succeed.
“You think your role as a parent is to make sure your kids are motivated and that they’re working hard and that you’re applying the right amount of pressure,” Professor Hudson said.
“But that can become a real tension point if you’re applying the wrong pressure or providing too much pressure.
“They already feel it! They already know what’s at stake but it may not seem that way to some parents.
“What we know about what makes kids perform better is supportive encouragement.”
Psychotherapist and mother of two Janet O’Sullivan, whose son is currently completing year 12 through a school-based apprenticeship, said parents should reassure teens that exams were a “small part of their learning journey” and “an opportunity to do their best rather than a reflection of their worth or success”.
The Adelaide-based expert also said the “best support for their children during exam preparation is creating a calm, steady environment”.
Year 12 student Travis Cappelluti, 17, knows how lucky he is to have great support from his mum Alison.
“She’s always there for me,” the Christian Brothers College student from Adelaide said.
“She just somehow always knows what to say. It always makes it feel better.
“It makes it less stressful at times – she does a lot that goes unnoticed, even the simple things like making my lunches in the morning and washing my clothes.
“Me not having to worry about all that stuff just gives me more time to put towards schoolwork.”
Ms Cappelluti said she always tried to be involved with Travis’ learning, as she did with his older brother Alex, who graduated last year.
“Around the dinner table I will always engage both boys,” she said.
“I talk to them about they’re feeling with the content of their subjects, if there’s anything that they’re struggling with.”
This is the first part of a series of stories we’ll publish over coming weeks on how to help senior students perform at their best in their year 12 exams.
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Originally published as How you can help your teen as they navigate the stress and workload of year 12 exams
