East Learning

Every year, exam season brings the same conversations around student stress, anxiety and mental health.

But in reality, exams are often just exposing the wider pressures students have been carrying all year.

Schools across the UK are seeing growing challenges around confidence, emotional wellbeing and resilience - and for many young people, exam season simply brings those issues to the surface.

At East Learning, student data from our Aspirations Programme highlighted some important wellbeing trends schools should be paying attention to.

Wellbeing is declining across the school year

Using wellbeing surveys based on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS), East Learning tracked wellbeing trends across students participating in the Aspirations Programme.

The findings showed:

only 12% of students reported “high wellbeing” by the Summer Term
27% fell into the “low wellbeing” category
wellbeing steadily declined across the academic year

This matters because wellbeing directly impacts attendance, focus, confidence, engagement and long-term outcomes.

And during exam season, these challenges often become much more visible.

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Stress is only part of the picture

When schools talk about exam stress, the focus is often on revision pressure and workload.

But the data suggests the bigger issue is emotional resilience.

The strongest drivers of low wellbeing were:

difficulty relaxing
struggling to deal with problems
difficulty thinking clearly

Other themes included low optimism about the future, feeling isolated from others and lacking emotional support networks.

For many schools, this reflects what staff are already seeing every day: students are not only struggling academically - many are struggling emotionally too.

Female and SEN students were most affected

The data also highlighted clear wellbeing gaps among different student groups.

Female students and students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) consistently reported lower wellbeing scores than the overall student average.

This highlights the importance of targeted support - especially during high-pressure periods like exam season and post-16 transition points.

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One positive finding: confidence improved

Despite the decline in overall wellbeing, 64% of students said their self-confidence improved during the academic year.

That’s important because it shows schools are making a positive difference.

The schools seeing the strongest impact are often those creating opportunities for:

student voice
social connection
enrichment
positive future conversations
wellbeing support built into everyday school life

Free wellbeing resources for schools

The East Learning schools team has created a range of free mental health and wellbeing resources designed to help schools support student confidence, resilience and emotional wellbeing.

These resources are already being used by schools across the UK to turn wellbeing insight into practical action. Explore the free wellbeing resources here ‍

Want to better understand your students’ wellbeing?

The East Learning Aspirations Programme helps schools uncover the real factors affecting student wellbeing, confidence, aspirations and engagement.

Using student voice and wellbeing data, schools gain practical insight into:

wellbeing trends across year groups
barriers affecting engagement
confidence and aspiration levels
targeted support opportunities