Assessment Season for Kids Yoga Teachers

Supporting Children During Assessment Season: A Guide for Kids Yoga Teachers

In this blog, I’m sharing insights on a topic that comes around each year and often impacts the children we work with: assessment season.

Whether you teach in schools, run community classes, or work in other settings, the changes that assessments bring can affect the energy, behaviour and emotional well-being of the children in your classes.
Let’s explore what’s happening and how you can support children during this time.

What’s Assessment Season, and When Is It?In most UK schools, formal assessments take place during the summer term, typically from early May to mid-June. For Year 6 children, it’s usually one focused week in May, known as SATs Week, but assessments happen across most year groups in different forms.
Even if the children you work with aren’t taking part in assessments themselves, their routines and environments are often affected – and that ripple can show up in your classes.

How Might Assessment Season Affect Children?
Children might not be able to name what’s different – but they feel it. Here are some common ways it shows up:

Changes in Energy Levels
Some children will arrive in your class full of pent-up energy after sitting still and focusing all day – like coiled springs. Others may seem floppy and drained, having put a lot of effort into their learning or adjusted to new routines.

Shifts in Mood and Behaviour
Children might:

• Become more sensitive or snappy
  
• Struggle with focus or regulation
• Seek more control (especially if life feels unpredictable elsewhere)
• Have reduced tolerance for things that usually don’t bother them
  

Even subtle school-wide changes can trigger this – like furniture being moved, different adults in the room, or changes in PE and lunch routines due to rooms being used for testing.

Increased Worries
No matter how calmly assessments are introduced, some children worry:

“What if I fail?”
“What if I get a zero?”
“What if I talk when it’s supposed to be silent?”

These worries are real and valid, even if the adults around them are doing their best to keep things low-pressure.

Disrupted Sleep
Assessment season coincides with longer days and lighter evenings. Combined with stress or change, this can mean children get less sleep – and we all know how that impacts mood and self-regulation.

Top Tips for Keeping Your Yoga Classes Calm and Supportive

🌟 Give Space to Talk
Let children share how they’re feeling. Create space for discussion, listening and reassurance. Small worries to us can feel huge to them – acknowledging this can go a long way.

🌟 Adapt to What You See
Meet the energy in the room. If children arrive exhausted, try starting with a calming story or gentle breathing. If they’re buzzing with energy, a big, space-filling warm-up game might help release it.
Let go of the plan if needed – your flexibility will support their nervous systems more than any pre-written sequence could.

🌟 Be Gentle With Yourself Too
You’re not immune to the ripple effects! If school routines are off, rooms are changed, or children feel different – you’ll feel it too. Be kind to yourself. It’s okay to feel a little discombobulated.

Extra Resources for You
To help support your classes (and yourself!) during this time, here are some useful resources:

🎥 Video Playlist: Positive Behaviour Strategies
📹Video: Supporting children's well-being during tests
🌱 Free Lesson Plan
🧠 Tame the Crowd Without Being Loud – my popular e-course, packed with neuroscience, psychology, and practical behaviour support that’s totally aligned with who you are as a kids yoga teacher. This training is just £35 until 1st June, when it will rise to £47 due to the added content – and you’ll get lifetime access, so even if now’s not the time, it’s worth snapping up while it’s still at this price.

Come and Connect
If you're not already in my Facebook group, School Yoga Teachers, I’d love to welcome you in. It's a supportive, helpful space to ask questions, share experiences and feel less alone during times like this.

If you have any questions, email me at [email protected]

Thanks for all you do to support children – especially during seasons like this. You’re making a real difference.
x
Julia