Timeliness – autonomy – contextualised.

It’s estimated that there is, on average, one child in every classroom with ADHD (1). And yet teachers say they feel ill-equipped to support these children well (2). School staff told me that ADHD training hardly ever took place, didn’t always include what they wanted to learn about, and often suggested strategies which just wouldn’t work in a typical classroom. I interviewed 19 staff members including head teachers, SENCOs, class teachers, teaching assistants and inclusion managers from across England. The same story kept getting told.

Timeliness – I’ve never had ADHD training – or, I did have an hour once as part of an INSET day but it was 5 years ago. I wanted to understand more about medication but that was never touched on. Autonomy – I would like to know where ADHD comes from and what causes it. I want to refresh my ideas on supporting children with attention difficulties. Contextualised – The strategies people suggest just wouldn’t work in my classroom. I’d need 2 extra staff to do anything that is described.

It seems that ADHD training and resourcing for schools isn’t always available or relevant or realistic. I worked with a group of 8 school staff (with a range of roles) to discuss this issue and we came up with the idea of a website that was easy to use and contained information and strategies that were tried and tested by school staff, and communicated in language they could understand. I was a doctoral researcher specialising in ADHD, having worked with teenagers with ADHD in and out of school for over a decade. Bringing together the academic/clinical knowledge with the tacit knowledge, know-how, of staff experience, meant we could design something that would address the timeliness, autonomy and contextualisation that was needed.

Timeliness – the website is always available. Autonomy – staff can look for whatever knowledge or strategies they need at the time. Contextualised – the strategies are tried and tested in a classroom.

The staff involved were all from primary schools (some also supported in secondary schools – and said it was relevant there too). So, check out our website if you’re interested in supporting children with ADHD in schools. www.attic.org.uk

(1) Ward, R. J., Bristow, S. J., Kovshoff, H., Cortese, S., & Kreppner, J. (2022). The effects of ADHD teacher training programs on teachers and pupils: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders, 26(2), 225-244.

(2) Ward, R. J., Kovshoff, H., & Kreppner, J. (2021). School staff perspectives on ADHD and training: understanding the needs and views of UK primary staff. Emotional and behavioural difficulties, 26(3), 306-321.