Anxiety
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal response from our body when we are faced with something scary or stressful. It is a feeling of worry or fear that we experience as a combination of physical sensations in our body, thoughts and feelings.
Everyone feels worried sometimes and this is perfectly normal. We might feel nervous or scared about meeting new people, taking a test or going back to school after a break. Usually we can manage these worries and nerves until we are calm again.
Sometimes, for a variety of reasons (life events, personal circumstances, prolonged stress or personal resilience), we can become overwhelmed by anxiety so that it becomes a distressing or unmanageable experience. If this continues without support or relief, anxiety can become our brains 'go-to' reaction when faced with stress.
Luckily there are lots of things you can do to help if pupils are struggling with anxiety and we have outlined some tips for school staff below. Please also direct parents/carers to our parent/carer page on anxiety.
How to help pupils with anxiety
Things you can say
Normalise - let children know it's okay and normal to feel anxious and worried. Model this by talking to them about times you have felt worried or scared and what you did to feel better. Regular class check-ins can ensure discussions about feelings and emotions are a regular part of the school day. There are lots of nice books that can be used as whole class work, here is a list of some examples.
Please also see our page on Emotion Coaching for classroom ideas to support emotional literacy.
Explain anxiety to them - teaching children about anxiety and talking to them can help. Letting them know how common anxiety is can help them feel less alone. You can let them know that around 1 in 8 children experience anxiety. Talking to them about this and about what anxiety feels like in the body can help reassure them. This is a child friendly video explaining a little bit about anxiety.
The Hey Sigmund website has a whole section of videos for children and we have also adapted one of their examples of how to explain anxiety to children below:
Anxiety Explanation Script.pdf
Things you can do
Create a safe, predictable and consistent school/class environment. This will vary depending upon pupils and your setting, but you may wish to consider visual schedules, quiet areas/safe spaces, check-in times, or soft starts.
Work with the family. Not only is it important for pupils to see home and school working together, but good communication between home and school supports pupil engagement as well as wellbeing. Families supporting a child with anxiety may be overwhelmed and letting them know that you are there will reassure them and help validate their experiences.
Timetable regular breaks. Try to plan relaxation or calming breaks into the regular school day in a pro-active, rather than re-active way. Things like movement breaks, mindful colouring, listening to music, yoga etc.
Consider a signal for when the pupil is overwhelmed. Ensure you involve the pupil in this. Much like a help card, this should be a way in which a pupil can subtly let someone know that they are overwhelmed. There should be a pre-agreed plan in place for what happens in this situation.
Further considerations for pupils with anxiety:
They may not feel able to volunteer answers. Try not to put them on the spot and consider alternatives ways to give answers, or small group work.
Asking them to answer questions in front of large groups may be stressful. Try asking them in smaller discussions or giving them the opportunity to put their hand up. If a pupil does put their hand up and then goes blank, move on quickly without drawing attention to it and praise them for trying.
Taking part in subjects like Drama or Music may be stressful. Offer a variety of ways to take part. Activities that draw a lot of attention to a pupil may be very scary for them, so try to be mindful of this.
Being paired or grouped with new/unfamiliar people may be stressful. Consider a trusted peers initially or check in with the pupil around what they would prefer,
Asking for help or even just asking questions might be scary for them. Even if you have told pupils they can ask for help at any time, they may not feel comfortable doing so. Ensure you check in with them, or consider alternatives such as help cards.
Other supports:
Supporting children worried about going back to school
This is a really nice ebook about a boy worried about going back to school which helps to normalise anxiety and support children with how to help the ‘wobbly’ feeling go away.
Everybody worries ebook
This ebook was written by Jon Burgerman to support young children worried about Coronavirus, but it is also suitable for more general worries.
NHS Grampian CAMHS Resource Packs
CAMHS Grampian produced these resource packs last year. Although they were released as a support for pupils with anxiety around Coronavirus, they can actually be used more widely and they include nice anxiety management advice, relaxation ideas and coping cards.
There are packs for children under 12, for teenagers.
Coronavirus Activity Workbook
This is a helpful workbook with activities suited for upper primary/secondary pupils and staff. The gratitude log exercise on page 19 is a very simple activity that can have a range of positive benefits. Give it a try.