Student stress By Czarina, 13 School Reporter, St John Bosco Arts College, Liverpool

Reward after the stress: Prize-giving at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall

Stress is what you feel when you are under pressure. Stress can be caused by illness, physical or mental problems.

Student stress is an extra pressure for a student at school. It is often caused by homework, lessons, new friends, and sometimes family problems.

Some pupils get stressed because of the amount of homework or lessons they have to do. Girls from my school commented about their stress on homework.

Georgia said: "When I'm stressed, I don't have time to do all my homework."

A student from St John Bosco Arts College receives an award

Rebecca said: "Some lessons are boring. If it's possible it would be nice to have four lessons a day so homework won't be that much."

I agree it would be nice to have fewer lessons, but six a day isn't really that bad.

I asked Anna if, for a regular student like her, lessons are easy. She replied: "Well, it depends on the teacher and their teaching methods."

We know that many students suffer from school stress. In my school, there are people who help pupils if we have problems.

Chaplin contact

In every class, we have our own form tutors and in each year, we have our Heads of Year who we can talk to if we have any problems. Sometimes, if we've got problems that our form tutor can't help us with, there's Anne, our school Chaplin.

If you need somebody to talk to she's always there, and she arranges retreats and charity fund-raising.

Head teacher Mrs Pontifex congratulates the students

Victoria said: "The school Chaplin is highly skilled to help teenagers with problems. I love talking to her when I have a problem as she really helps me see things from a different point of view."

We also have Peer Mentoring, where the younger students are given an older student as their mentor to help them with every-day school life.

There is also Assertive Mentoring, where each student is given a teacher as their mentor.

Prize night

There are many ways to relieve student stress, like being organised and managing your time wisely.

At St John Bosco, we have a prize night to celebrate students' success and hard work.

Guest speaker Patricia Gallon addresses the pupils

Every year this is held in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall. Certificates for GCSEs and A Levels, as well as prizes and awards for sporting, music and performing arts events, are given out in front of the whole school and parents and guardians.

It's always a great night that makes up for all of our hard work throughout the year and you do gain a great feeling of success.