THE Children's Commissioner to Wales is calling for advice to be given to children about how to deal with exam pressure.

Peter Clarke (pictured) told the Argus he was surprised to learn many children haven't received much guidance from schools about planning for exams and how to deal with their feelings.

His calls come as thousands of Gwent GCSE students today learn their exam results. Mr Clarke said he had found out from speaking directly to groups of children that while some did get guidance some said they didn't and they found it difficult to handle how they felt.

He said: "It wasn't a forcible complaint, it just emerged during normal conversations. This was their clear experience. When they felt worry and panic they didn't know how to deal with that. Some of them described freezing up and their anxiety levels increasing." Mr Clarke said the children had told them this happened in the periods leading up to exams and during the tests.

He added in many cases children will talk to teachers or parents about pressures they are under but on the subject of exams it is more difficult to do so because children want to do well and cannot share their concerns.

Mr Clarke said he is in no doubt pressures are increasing on children to do well in school and in some cases this has led to some having disrupted sleep patterns and eating disorders. And while working for ChildLine, he found from Easter time onwards children would increasingly phone up to talk about their feelings and the effects the anxiety was having on them.

He said: "We have had, sadly, in Wales over the last ten years some tragic stories where children took their lives because of exam pressure.

"I am concerned about the system of exams. Young people are very aware that exams are seen as a cross-roads of their life. I think we have to be careful how we describe exams and their consequences.

"Exams are a particular form of assessment and test how people perform under pressure and there's no doubt there are some pupils who don't perform well under exams and don't do themselves justice."

Mr Clarke said part of the answer for reducing the pressures and stresses children face could be a reduction in the number of exams.

He said: "We need to look at whether we need to test young people so often. We need to look at other things they do and make sure systems of support are in place."

A spokeswoman for the National Assembly said: "The government recognised there was a burden caused by the new AS levels and that's why they have agreed to reform the system for next year."

The reform should lead to a reduction in the pressures and stresses students face because, instead of sitting a number of exams throughout the year for a subject, they will sit just one.