School anxiety triggers defined

NAPLAN testing and homework load have beaten out friendship pressures, difficult school work and liking the teacher as the most nerveracking things about school for nearly one in three students.

New research from online tutoring agency Cluey Learning, which surveyed primary and secondary students across Australia, says NAPLAN tests rate highly in terms of school stresses with nearly 30 per cent of students surveyed saying it is the most stressful experience they have had yet at school.

Homework load was the highest driver of anxiety with 31 per cent of students nominating it as their top cause of stress closely followed by tests like NAPLAN (26 per cent) then challenging classwork (20 per cent), getting along with friends (15 per cent) and getting on with the teacher (9 per cent).

NAPLAN was also named by the Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) as one of the factors behind a rise in stressed school students in a recent report that found 80 per cent of leaders see anxiety as a significant issue within their schools and 60 per cent said they had insufficient resources to deal with the issue.

The APPA report found NAPLAN is particularly an issue in Year 3, with some children unable to deal with the pressures and also nominating performance anxiety around NAPLAN.

Psychologist Michael Hawton said there was an emerging trend of rising anxiety levels in primary school students.

“It would appear teachers and parents are not sure exactly how to handle it,” he said.

“Usually stress shows itself when it accumulates to a point where their learning ability and function is affected.”

The Cluey Learning national survey found students believe the NAPLAN stress is largely driven from teachers with almost 60 per cent of pupils agreeing their teachers are stressed or worried about the national exams that test literacy and numeracy.

At home, more than 50 per cent of parents purposely avoid mentioning NAPLAN during the lead-up and more than one in three parents are considering pulling their child out of NAPLAN.

Malcolm Elliott, President of the APPA said he wasn’t surprised to learn school was the source of NAPLAN stress.

“NAPLAN has unfortunately quickly become a high stakes test,” Mr Elliott said.

“Teachers’ worth and schools’ worth are pinned to the NAPLAN data and that creates tremendous pressure,” he said, adding that the varied approaches by different schools to NAPLAN only made it more complex.