The frustrating and complex thing about learning, particularly with teenagers, is that it’s not linear. It’s sequential, varied, often frustrating, and rife with of social and emotional challenges. Effective learning or ‘mastery’ of GCSE content depends on carefully sequencing topics so that they gradually build on foundational knowledge, with flexibility for teachers on how long they need to spend on any particular topic (Education Endowment Foundation, 2023). In other words, pace and sequence are not one-size-fits-all- and that’s especially true for teenagers, which is why any guidance of navigating the exam series must be tailored to the individual. But thankfully there are some guiding principles, which I’ll explore a little of today. 

I remember working in schools and feeling an enormous amount of pressure to do the best for teenagers within a very complex system. Grappling with additional variables like behaviour management only compounds the feeling of responsibility, and often guilt, that educators feel. I can’t imagine how it must be to be a parent: wanting the best for your child and having to trust a process that is, to some extent, out of your hands. I think this is an interesting time to reflect on managing expectations- for myself, for teens- and helping them get to grips with what is expected of them. But also with some gentle reminders of how parents can work with tutors and support their teen in a way that is, ultimately, healthy for them and for their relationship. The EEF’s (2018a) guidance is clear that levels of parental engagement are consistently associated with better academic outcomes, and that effective parental engagement can lead to learning gains of around three additional months over the course of a year.

You can find guidance in my previous blog on how to support your anxious teen to be more resilient:

How to help anxious learners be more academically resilient

This is particularly important around exam time. And yes, there are some quick wins and top tips we can offer them in advance of the exam series. However, as always, I advocate for an approach that sets them up for success early and strategically builds towards meaningful and inclusive learning along the way, making considered efforts to help them navigate their own emotional responses and expectations around exams. In an ideal world I start working with a student in Year 9 or even earlier, nurturing and collaborating with families throughout that process- meaning that by the time they reach Year 11, they already have the core skills and knowledge, and we can focus on refining their exam technique and confidence. But that’s sadly not usually the case. Many parents wait until Year 11, understandably because it is of course a financial commitment to seek additional support, and often challenges might not become clear until later down the line- it then becomes a teacher’s and tutor’s job to identify the most purposeful goals within that shorter time period.

There is some really valuable work that can be done here, and the more skilled and knowledgeable a tutor is around exam technique, the better. Having marked for AQA English Language and English Literature GCSE, I am able to advise students on what to do (and what not to do) from an informed perspective. So, starting with Year 11: For a student who has had a poor experience of engaging with education, it can feel like a lot to suddenly impose a structure on them, and we risk stifling engagement in the process. Year 11 can be a big push towards an end goal, but equally it is still a school year in a young person’s life, and a time where they are navigating a great deal outside of school. For them to be stressed and miserable for the full duration of Year 11 would feel like a cruelty. Given that I work with students with a range of needs and particular emotional challenges around education, it is especially important for me to be sensitive and empathetic throughout, helping them approach exam expectations in a way that chunks and rationalises the workload, rather than throwing more things at the wall and hoping for the best. Trauma-informed and needs-led approaches to education remind us that students who carry significant emotional burdens need safety and trust before they can engage with challenge (Deci & Ryan, 1985; see also other trauma-informed practice literature).

Patience is key- but how do we balance that patience against very real exam time pressure? Year 11 is also a time where we want to increase accountability and ownership, and where young people begin to feel they have a stake in their own lives and choices. Autonomy, competence and relatedness are fundamental to intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985)- and gently offering teens choices in how they engage with learning directly supports all three.

In practice: as a tutor I take a solutions-oriented approach to what the year will look like: we distill the most important, high-leverage skills that are going to make the biggest difference in the exam. For example, in English Language the creative writing question is worth a quarter of the total marks for the GCSE. We therefore pay particular attention to that question and work hard to hone and refine skills there.

In one-to-one sessions, it’s especially valuable when students can identify and reflect on where their strengths and gaps lie- so much of the work we do is around metacognition (EEF, 2018b) and helping them notice and articulate where improvements are needed. 

So now we find ourselves in April 2026, a few weeks before exams- and some students across the country are burying their heads in the sand, although I’m happy to say that I have been extremely impressed with those I work with and the work ethic they are applying. Thankfully, with most of my students I have had the chance to build rapport and a genuine relationship, so they trust me when I direct them in particular areas. But that doesn’t mean they have grasped everything yet- so now we I have to go back to the strategy and be very mindful and purposeful about how we are spending our sessions. 

Some are overly anxious because they desperately want to get things right and have more perfectionistic tendencies, while others have dyslexia or other learning differences that make it difficult to juggle lots of information at once. For many of my students, the challenge is not simply one of knowledge- it is about managing the cognitive load of holding, organising and deploying information under pressure (British Dyslexia Association, n.d.). With these students, we have done a lot of focused work on writing, planning, and ensuring they have really effective strategies for going into the exam. I can’t reteach all of the content some may have missed, but I can equip them with those high-leverage or ‘hinge’ concepts (Wiliam, 2015).

So now we pause, remind, and set clear expectations for weekly independent learning. We offer teens choices in how they engage with that learning, gently hold them accountable, and do our best to trust that they will rise to the occasion. There are probably further conversations to be had around managing in-the-moment exam pressure with some of my students- and I’ll continue to reflect on how to improve the strategy moving forwards.

This month I’m reflecting on how we can balance structured exam strategy whilst still maintaining engagement and curiosity.

References

British Dyslexia Association. (n.d.). What is dyslexia? https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexia/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum Press.

Education Endowment Foundation. (2018a). Working with parents to support children’s learning: Guidance report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/supporting-parents

Education Endowment Foundation. (2018b). Metacognition and self-regulated learning: Guidance report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition

Education Endowment Foundation. (2023). Mastery learning: Teaching and learning toolkit. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/mastery-learning

Education Endowment Foundation. (2024). Parental engagement: Teaching and learning toolkit. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/parental-engagement

Wiliam, D. (2015). Designing great hinge questions. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 40–44.