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Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:12 pm
by Bourne Mum
To those whose children haven't done their exams yet, it might be best to wait a few minutes after the kids have gone in before leaving. I witnessed a heartbreaking moment this morning that no child should go through. Some children started coming out of the building before the exam, crying and ran into their parents arms and were swiftly driven away. However some kids started coming out after most parents had left and had to be taken back into the building. Imagine how distressful it was for them not to have their parents comfort and to have to go back into the very atmosphere that had so clearly upset them...

All the best to everyone still going through the process. x

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 4:30 pm
by Amber
You mean they were all too traumatised to sit the exam? You sure there wasn't some kind of atrocity going on in there? Never heard of kids running crying from the building before the exam , especially not in their droves.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 4:39 pm
by ToadMum
Which school was this???

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:00 pm
by mystery
Surely you wouldn't be allowed out of a school building on your own at that age? Don't they have a "holding area" for children who kick up too much of a hullaballoo in the exam room? You'd think they could just be asked to sit there quietly in the entrance and read the Beano until their parents come back at the end to tell them off for not getting on with the exam?

Hope they didn't upset any well-behaved children who were trying to get on with the exam.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:29 pm
by London_Mum
I know some children can mess around in the tests and disturb others but the distress described by Bourne Mum sounds like a panic attack and not bad behaviour at all.
Hopefully a child upset to that degree would be swiftly led out of the exam room for their own sake as much as for anyone else's.

The children are only 10 years old, some have been coached for years for this pivotal moment in their lives and perhaps the stress just get too much sometimes. People much older and with much more experience would find such exam days daunting.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 6:30 pm
by mystery
This sounds like droves exiting the building though, without an adult. Very odd.

I was a little tongue in cheek about the bad behaviour but I would be a bit peeved with a child who just ran away from the situation. Otherwise you make them feel it is appropriate to be scared. I have exam nerves too but it is an irrational fear. You are not going to die in an exam.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 7:17 pm
by Amber
mystery wrote:This sounds like droves exiting the building though, without an adult. Very odd.
I do agree. I can't imagine they would be let out alone. As a parent I would be most unhappy to discover my child had run- shrieking, hysterical or otherwise, from an exam, unimpeded by staff. Methinks there is more to this tale than meets the eye.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 10:27 pm
by London_Mum
Absolutely - a child (let alone several children) should not be free to run out from an exam room into a busy car park. If they are in a distressed state this is even more dangerous.

Irrational fear or not, exam nerves hit some children very hard. The children taking the tests are very young. Many of them will never have encountered anything quite as pressurised as 11+ test situations before (2000 strangers descending on an unfamiliar school to take a test billed as highly important). It would be enough to freak out many adults.

We all have our own triggers and vulnerabilities. Exam stress was something I never suffered from but I can empathise with those who do. Even at university there were students who had special dispensation to sit by the door or were allowed to take their exams alone as a way to help them cope with their nerves.
Year 6 children have many years ahead of them to learn strategies to cope in such situations. I think it harsh to be cross with any 10 year old who fell apart under such circumstances.

That still doesn't explain the possible mass hysteria OP seemingly describes. Individual children being upset though is understandable.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 10:43 pm
by mystery
No I agree that cross would be the wrong reaction but, in a way, you have to do something to make children realise that it is not truly a fearful situation. Too much sympathy and you make them deep down feel their fears are justified.

My exam fears were handed on down to me. Ten is young, but it is also young to have major exam nerves unless you feel a lot rides on the outcome. Hopefully a child that age would not feel that the outcome mattered much either way.

Re: Quick Tip

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 10:51 pm
by London_Mum
That is very true mystery.