Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote safe alleviation of stress for young people in exams times; and whether there are any initiatives that teachers who are worried about pupils can use.

Examinations are, by their very nature, stressful but the Government has already taken steps to reduce the examination burdens upon pupils. At GCSE, we have made examinations linear, with examinations only at the end of the course of study, giving pupils at least two full years of study before they sit external examinations. At A level we have also made the examinations linear with no January assessment window, and have created a new structure that will enable students to study for two full years towards an A level without the need to take an AS level examinations at all.

In addition, the Department is taking forward various projects to support schools further, including extending a joint training pilot to train mental health leads in schools and specialist services across 1200 more schools and colleges in 20 additional Clinical Commissioning Group areas.

We are also investing £1.5 million to pilot a range of peer support programmes and approaches for schools, colleges, community groups and online.