How to deal with school stress

We spoke to our teen psychologist Bettina Hohnen, who has shared her top tips for dealing with stress and creating a school routine:

1. Think about stress differently

Some stress is inevitable in life – it's how we grow and learn. When you feel stressed, tell yourself it means your brain is in the right place to do great things. This makes a big difference to how your brain and body cope.

2. Establish a good routine, AM & PM

Once a habit is in place, it feels weird when we don’t do it, so the smart thing to do is to set up habits that will support us to feel our best. You know what’s good for you (cleaning your face at nighttime and regular sleep) and what’s bad for you (doom scrolling before bed), so start as you mean to go on and train your brain to do it every time.

3. Get organised to feel in control

Calm brains work best, so get ahead of the game with good organisation – pack your bag the night before, charge your phone downstairs. There are great apps that can help – phone reminders, to-do lists and digital calendars are great to manage and delegate your time.