Supporting Student Anxiety in Secondary Classrooms
A Practical Teacher Quick Guide (Transitions, Change & Learning)
Charlotte White - Think Different, Teach Better
Why This Matters in Secondary Settings
Secondary students experience constant transitions: between classes, teachers, peers, expectations, and learning environments. While increased independence is expected, anxiety can significantly impact students’ ability to engage, persist, and learn.
Anxiety in adolescents is not a lack of motivation or effort. It is a nervous system response to uncertainty, perceived threat, or fear of failure.
What Anxiety Often Looks Like in Secondary Classrooms
Anxiety may present differently in older students and can be easily misinterpreted.
Common presentations include:
- Avoidance (late arrivals, frequent bathroom breaks, missed lessons)
- Task refusal or incomplete work
- Perfectionism or fear of submitting work
- Excessive reassurance-seeking (emails, repeated questions)
- Shutdown, withdrawal, or silence
- Irritability or behaviour that appears oppositional
- Physical complaints (headaches, nausea, fatigue)
During transitions (new year, new subjects, assessments), anxiety may increase.
The Inverted Triangle (Dr Claire Hayes)
Understanding How Adult Responses Can Reduce — or Maintain — Anxiety
Top of the Triangle: Short-Term Relief
These strategies reduce anxiety quickly but strengthen it long-term:
- Excessive reassurance
- Avoidance (extensions without plan, removal of expectations)
- Over-scaffolding or doing tasks for students
Message to the brain: I cannot cope without certainty or rescue.
Middle of the Triangle: Supported Discomfort
Teachers maintain expectations while offering support:
- “This feels uncomfortable, and you can manage it.”
- “Let’s break it into the first step.”
Message to the brain: I can tolerate discomfort with support.
Bottom of the Triangle: Capacity Building
The focus shifts to independence and resilience:
- Gradual exposure to challenge
- Reduced reassurance
- Explicit teaching of coping strategies
Message to the brain: I can handle this.
What Secondary Teachers Can Do
Reduce Cognitive Load
- Give one clear instruction at a time
- Avoid overloading slides or verbal instructions
- Clearly identify the starting point of tasks
Predictability & Pre-Correction
- Outline lesson structure at the start
- Flag upcoming changes or assessments early
- Use pre-correction language:
- “If this feels tricky, start with the first question only.”
Feedback That Reduces Anxiety
- Focus on effort, strategy, and persistence
- Be specific and predictable
- Avoid vague praise
Examples:
- “You stayed engaged even when it felt difficult.”
- “You used a strategy rather than avoiding the task.”
Uncertainty Training in Secondary Classrooms
What It Is
Uncertainty training helps students learn that:
- not knowing is uncomfortable but safe
- mistakes are part of learning
- anxiety rises and falls
Avoiding uncertainty strengthens anxiety; tolerating it builds resilience.
What It Looks Like in Practice
- Open-ended questions with multiple correct responses
- Delayed reassurance (“Have a go first, then we’ll review”)
- Normalising uncertainty through teacher language
Teacher language examples:
- “You don’t need certainty to begin.”
- “Being unsure doesn’t mean you’re failing.”
Body-Based Regulation (Adolescents)
- Encourage movement between tasks
- Normalise breathing or grounding strategies
- Teach students to label sensations
Script:
“My heart is racing — that’s anxiety, not danger.”
Across the Day in Secondary Settings
- Expectations remain consistent across subjects
- Teachers coach rather than rescue
- Success is measured by engagement, not perfection
- Students are supported to persist through discomfort
What This Is NOT
- Ignoring anxiety
- Lowering expectations without support
- Being unpredictable
- Pushing students into distress
This approach is intentional, supportive, and developmentally appropriate.
Key Takeaway
Our role is not to remove challenge — but to help students build the skills to cope with it.
Recommended Resources
- Finding Hope in the Age of Anxiety — Dr Claire Hayes
- Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD — Eli Lebowitz
- Beyond Blue — Youth Anxiety
- Headspace Schools Program
- Smiling Mind — Secondary Resources