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Paul was in his GCSE exam year and predicted A*s for his ten subjects.
It appeared to me that it should have been a fairly stress-free time for this bright boy but that was not the case.
The nearer the exams came the worse matters got for Paul. Rather than him developing an overall anxiety about the exams it was maths causing the problem.
He was in the top set for that subject but due to his increasing anxiety his marks started dropping and he was moved down a set. There was now an element of panic about the exam and an expectation of a poor result developed. Some detective work was needed!
After some ‘digging around’ looking for anything maths related to account for Paul’s lower marks he recalled an interesting story from when he was in Year 5.
He said that in that year he had gained weight and didn’t like it so decided to get involved in football. One evening quite forgetting that he had maths homework he went out to play football with his friends.
The following morning he was in trouble at school for not having done the homework and felt humiliated at being admonished in front of the class. He had explained to the teacher what had happened but she wasn’t sympathetic. He was left feeling very angry.
Paul had no strategies to dissipate his anger so had been dragging it around with him since Year 5. In such situations if we can’t deal with our anger immediately then any further events triggering a similar emotion mean that we just add it to the existing pot.
And that is exactly what had happened. It transpired that when Paul was moved to the lower maths set there were a number of pupils who sat at the back of the class using their phones. This unfortunately was ignored by the teacher but was hugely distracting for Paul. He was faced with another situation involving maths that caused him considerable rage.
The ‘anger pot’ was filling but how long before it exploded?
I suspect that Paul also faced fear – fear that he would never be able to achieve the good results that he had been predicted and fear that he may never be in control of his own life. He had no idea how to voice aloud how disruptive certain pupils in the class were and how angry he was that their poor behaviour was impacting on him. His personal power and success in his maths exam were threatened - he must have felt like a victim. How would he ever achieve autonomy?
Using the Emotional Literacy Floor Sheet Paul worked towards naming what he felt about both the homework incident and the distraction in his current maths set.
That part was straight forward. I could see from his body language that he was reliving both situations and he was quite clear that he was angry. I asked him to tell me what his body sensation is when he is angry. He told me ‘goosebumps’.
This is a really important part of emotional literacy as it is the ‘early warning system’.
If Paul isn’t cold but has goosebumps then he knows that he is angry.
After this work Paul decided that he could address the current issue over maths with the Head of Department. He was very calm and confident about what he was going to do and clearly did it well.
He was immediately moved back to the top set and got an A* in all GCSE subjects. Paul had taken control in the best possible way. He was moving towards autonomy – fulfilling his dream.
Well done that boy!