HNC is delighted to reveal that our students have created a ‘Stress Busting Guide’ for Mental Health Awareness Week (13-19 May) to offer peer to peer support as we head into the summer exam series.
As we approach exam season, it is more important than ever that we look after our physical and mental health. Exams are a necessary part of your education but undoubtedly, they can be a stressful time for some. Here at HNC, we have a variety of support mechanisms in place to ensure that you have the skills and resilience to face your exams with confidence, whether that’s by accessing the exam and revision support packages provided by the LSC team, to booking an appointment with a member of the student wellbeing team.
Recently, as a College community we have been discussing stress management. April was Stress Awareness Month, and throughout April, we shared a range of tips, guidance and support for students and staff, from welcoming therapy dog Ernie to HNC, to creating our ‘Exam Toolkit’ for students who wanted to improve up their revision and exam technique. The exam toolkit is a particularly useful resource which looks at a variety of practical tips for looking after yourself, from guides on how to create a healthy sleep environment to how to plan effective revision sessions.
During Stress Awareness Month, we also asked we asked our student community to share with us their best ‘stress busting’ tips, from which we have created a guide for students, by students, on how to effectively manage stress. Packed full of brilliant advice, this guide provides some genuine tips that have helped our students to reduce their stress, and we hope that by creating this guide, you too can benefit from some of these stress reducing exercises. From breathing techniques to moving more, leaning on your support networks to keeping yourself fit and healthy, these tips will not only support you through upcoming exams, they’ll also provide you with a framework for a healthy mind and body far beyond the classroom! You can view our Student Stress Busting Guide here.
Zoe Potts, Faculty Lead Enlighten Health and Sport, comments “As a College we work hard to ensure that we provide our students not only with a multi-layered practical approach to support, but we also support them to build the skills and resilience needed to face stressful situations in a positive way. Not all stress is negative, it can help us grow and achieve our ambitions, and this brilliant guide created for students, by students, really does provide some genuine advice that has helped our students to overcome situations that could otherwise be stressful. I highly recommend reviewing the tips and trying some out for yourselves. Don’t forget that there is plenty of support available at College, so please do book an appointment with our wellbeing team if you need to. Thank you to all our student contributors!”.
As a College, we will also be coming together for ‘Wear it Green Day’, where we are asking staff and students to join us un wearing something green on Thursday 16 May to help us raise further awareness for mental health. More information about the day can be found on Moodle.