Holy Cross College opens Exam Mindfulness Café for stressed students

Holy Cross College built exam-week mindfulness into a place and a schedule students can actually use. The Exam Mindfulness Café opened on Monday, May 11, and runs through Friday, June 19, on every exam day at 8 a.m. and again at noon in RE2, the Kentigern Building, giving students a fixed stop before they walk into a test.

Inside the café, the approach is deliberately low-pressure. All exam talk is banned, there is no pressure to talk, and students are welcome to stay only a few minutes if that is all they need. The college says the space is open to everyone, including students who feel anxious, overwhelmed, or simply want a peaceful place before an exam.

The offer is simple and practical rather than abstract. Fruit teas and water are available alongside gentle guided breathing exercises and simple mindfulness activities. Students can bring their own breakfast, or take advantage of free toast and porridge in the canteen, making the café feel less like a wellness slogan and more like a usable pause built into the school day.

For students who want silence rather than a social calm room, Holy Cross also made room for that. A second quiet option is available in the chapel on the same corridor as RE2, where students can sit for silent meditation instead of joining the café space.

The café sits inside a wider exam-season support push at Holy Cross. Exam Stress Workshops began on Wednesday, May 6, and ran on five Wednesday sessions at 12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. in RE2, led by Tracy Kelly from the Bury Young People’s Mental Health Support Team. The college also pointed students to its broader wellbeing offer, which includes 1:1 wellbeing support, counselling, peer mentors from Upper Sixth students, a daily HCC social group, and access to Togetherall.

The timing matches the kind of support schools and colleges are increasingly being urged to provide. The Department for Education says good mental health and wellbeing helps students attend, learn, achieve academically, and do better over the longer term. The NHS says breathing exercises for stress, anxiety, and panic can take just a few minutes and be done anywhere. Mind’s guidance for 11-to-18-year-olds says exam stress is common, and students are not alone if they are struggling.

At a Roman Catholic sixth form college founded by the Daughters of the Cross, the choice of a chapel-based silent option and a structured calm room makes the message plain: mindfulness works best when it is easy to find, easy to enter, and built around the exact minutes before an exam begins.