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Exam season has a way of changing the atmosphere.

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Even before the exams begin, something starts to tighten.

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Homes can feel more strained. Classrooms can feel more urgent. Young people who are usually cheerful can become snappy, flat, worried, or withdrawn.

 

Some throw themselves into revision. Others avoid it because the whole thing already feels too big. And many do what teenagers have always done - carry more than adults realise, while trying to look as though they are fine.

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As a mum of teenagers, a teacher, and a life coach, I find myself thinking often about the pressures young people are under now, and how different the landscape feels from the one many of us grew up in.

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Exams have always mattered. Nerves are not new. But it is hard not to feel that today’s young people are being asked to hold a great deal.

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They are growing up in a culture of constant comparison, permanent digital noise, and endless competition for their attention.

 

Their minds are rarely left alone for long. A bored moment that might once have turned into rest, daydreaming, or simply being, is now easily filled by notifications, scrolling, messaging, and the low-level sense that everyone else is doing more, revising better, coping better, achieving more.

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At the same time, many are carrying disadvantages that have nothing to do with effort or ability. Some have less quiet, less support, less money, less confidence, less stability, or less access to the extras that can make such a difference.

 

In England, official reviews have continued to point to stubborn gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and to concerns that the current curriculum and assessment system is not delivering equally well for all young people.

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It is no surprise, then, that there are increasing calls to rethink what education is asking of children and teenagers. Recent debate around GCSEs has grown louder, with critics arguing that the system can be excessively stressful and can favour those with more support and resources outside school.

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Alongside this, concern about children’s anxiety has remained high. In September 2024, the Children’s Commissioner said that more than 500 children a day in England were being referred to mental health services for anxiety - more than double the rate before the pandemic.

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None of this means young people are fragile. Far from it.

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Many are remarkably capable, funny, resilient, and resourceful. But resilience is not the same as having to carry everything well. And sometimes what helps is not another pep talk, another timetable, or another reminder to “just focus.”

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Sometimes what helps is something smaller and more human.

Something they can actually touch.

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