AS STUDENTS start their exams next week, Marling School has been taking steps to make sure the mental health and wellbeing of its students are looked after.

Exam year groups have been spoken to by staff about looking after their mental health during this time.

The school has set up support emails for students and suggested techniques to use to manage their stress levels.

Assemblies have also been held for 6th form students to recognise when they are becoming overwhelmed and where to go for help.

The school has been using the online toolkit ‘Address Your Stress’ provided by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) , which gives lots of useful information and advice about stress management.

Steve Farr, Head of Marling School 6th form, said: “Exam time is always stressful and we want to equip our students with coping strategies that they can use to get them through it.

“We take students’ mental health and wellbeing very seriously and we have been helping them to understand their triggers, address some of the causes of their stress and how to organise their time effectively.”

Pupils at Marling are joining students across the country sitting a brand new set of GCSEs starting on Monday morning.

The revised exams have been making headlines for being tougher than those of previous years, following claims of grade inflation and dumbing down since they were introduced thirty years ago.

But the additional difficulty has raised concerns about students suffering extra exam stress.