What makes a successful transition from primary to secondary school for children with ADHD?
The transition from primary to secondary school is difficult for many children, but children with ADHD are particularly vulnerable at this time. They will benefit from good, careful preparation for transfer.
Choosing a Secondary School
• Don’t just go by the exam results.
The “best” local school is the one with the best exam results, and the highest position in the school league tables. But this school may or may not be the best one for your child. A high place in the schools’ league table is no use to you or your child if they are unhappy at the school and don’t get the support and help that they need
• Choose an ADHD-friendly school.
This means a school with a caring atmosphere, a good system for supporting youngsters who are having problems (“pastoral care” is the educational jargon) and some experience of youngsters with ADHD.
• Talk to the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo)
Schools have open days, but parents of children with ADHD should make a separate appointment to see the SENCo. This will help you to judge how ADHD-friendly the school is. You might want to plan some regular meetings with the school once your child has started secondary school to review how your child is settling in
• Contact your local ADHD support group.
They may be able to put you in touch with the parents of youngsters with ADHD who are already at local secondary schools.
Preparing for Secondary School
Visits and practice runs
• If the journey to school on public transport is a worry, think about doing some practice runs - perhaps going with your child once or twice, then sending them off with a friend or two
• If your child is worried about finding his way around the new school, contact the school and ask to be shown round with your child. There will be a teacher whose job it is to liaise with primary schools, and they should be happy to help
• If getting organised is a problem, get hold of a Year 7 timetable for the new school for the current school year and, in the last weeks of the summer holiday, have some practice runs at getting the right things ready on the right day.
• Help your child develop good organisational skills by showing them how to use a timetable and checklists of what they need to pack in their bag each day for school. They can practice this in Year 6.
Communicating with primary school
In the case of ADHD, it’s a good idea for parents to contact the SENCO in any case
(a) to introduce themselves and the child
(b) to make sure that the SENCO knows all about your child.
Some teachers may talk about making a “fresh start” at a new school, i.e. not trying to find out from the primary school about the new intake of youngsters. In the case of children with ADHD and other long-term problems, this is not usually helpful.
Behaviour
Inappropriate behaviour can be a common issue in children with ADHD, and the move to secondary school can sometimes make matters worse.
There are a number of risks:
• There may be more unsupervised and unstructured time which may result in children with ADHD making inappropriate choices
• There is contact with older students, some of whom may have an influence on behaviour
Clearly it’s important to try to tackle behaviour problems before they get really serious. Persistent behaviour problems can lead to temporary or permanent exclusion from school. It is important to separate the behaviour from the child and to focus on helping the child with ADHD to make more appropriate choices in terms of their learning and behaviour responsibilities.
As soon as behaviour problems begin to appear:
• Contact the school — the form teacher, the SENCO, or the head of year 7
• Explain your concerns and ask the school to establish the nature of the problem. This will involve the form teacher, SENCO or head of year getting information from all your child’s teachers
• Ask for a meeting with the form teacher, SENCO or head of year to discuss how you can work together with your child to improve his or her behaviour
Children with ADHD at risk of exclusion may be asked to enter into a Pastoral Support Programme or PSP. The purpose of a PSP is to improve the youngster’s behaviour and avoid exclusion.
PSP - A Pastoral Support Plan enables you and the school to tap into all the resources of the local authority that can help to improve the child’s behaviour — Social Services, Educational Psychology, Youth Services, Housing Services etc. The details of the PSP and the agencies that are involved will vary from individual to individual and school to school, but the key point is that this is a government-supported mechanism for helping schools to avoid exclusions.
