ADHD - what next (school)

[Emmarjayne]

My 7 year old daughter has just been diagnosed with ADHD (medium risk) and has started medication. I have sent the school the diagnosis letter but I'm unsure what happens next or what the school should be doing.

I've tried looking online but can't find much Information. I've heard about a senco but have never met them. And unsure what they actually do.

If anyones been through this could they please advise with what the school should be doing now. I thought someone would have contacted me to discuss the diagnoses by now but nothing.

It very much depends on what you and the school think your daughter needs to support her learning.

Some children with a diagnosis need very little support and others might need some small group or one to one intervention, rest breaks, time out or any of a number of things.

The SENCo is the Special Educational Needs Coordinator. In a primary school, that will probably be a class teacher who has additional responsibilities and maybe, some time to coordinate the needs of children in school who are requiring extra help in some way.

Have you had reports or parent meetings and do you know how your child is progressing? Although it’s the end of term, you might be able to ask the teacher if s/he feels there are gaps and what is needed to enable progress. Or they might feel that it’s not an issue at this stage.

My Ds was diagnosed at the end of year 5 .. He was already struggling in school , he was on a home/school book already .

year 6 - I had meetings/ phone calls with teacher as necessary - if there was an increase in medication. I informed the school incase there was any side effects .

what difficulty is your Dd currently having in school - I would look to having a meeting with Senco or class teacher - my Ds started meds over the school holidays but has said he wasn’t the child he was expecting

Absolutely agree with PP above about organising a meeting with the SENCO. Ideally a pupil support plan/pastoral support plan should be put into place. Your DD will need additional support in school, she wouldn’t have met the threshold for a diagnosis otherwise, and even more so with regards the threshold to medicate. This is a document that sets out the support that she will receive in school and it should be reviewed on a regular basis. Girls are well known to be excellent at masking, so if this resonates with you, she may not be presenting as needing support in school but chances are, that the more she masks, the more exhausted and dysregulated she will be by the end of the school day and week so you will need to advocate for her in meetings to ensure that she gets the support that she needs and deserves. If you have CAMHS support then you can ask the practitioner to attend a meeting with you. Virtually or in person.
Good luck OP.

https://parents.actionforchildren.org.uk/additional-needs-disabilities/support-home-school/sen-support/

This may be helpful for you OP. Different schools call the support plans different names, some call it an SEN plan. This link (hope it works!) explains it all better than I can!

Thankyou everyone for replying.

My daughter does struggle to concentrate in class and has had to be moved several times, she refuses to go to school and is late most morning and a few other things. She is allowed to take her teddy to school and when overwhelmed she is allowed to go give it a cuddle in the hallway. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the school to be honest, I guess even a phone call to discus the diagnosis and what they can do to help would have been nice. I've had many issues with the school over the last year. To the point I will be writing a letter of complaint over the summer holidays to do with there lack of support. We don't have cahms support at the moment, a referral has been made to them but even that took the wellbeing team at her school a year to write, unless our private clinician is run through them. I'm unsure I'm very new to all of this. We are changing her medication as the one she is on at the moment doesn't seem to be helping much. And I will talk to the school when she goes back in September I guess.

It's really not about the diagnosis. The SEND code if practice requires Schools to meet specific needs rather than provide support based on labels. Is your dd struggling in school? If yes then find out the SENCo name from the school website and ask for a meeting where you discuss strategies that can be put in place to help her.

Did the diagnosing clinician make any recommendations for school in the report?

In all honesty it will be difficult to get meaningful support into place without an EHCP, and even then it can be a battle.

Look at the report, outline the support your DD needs and arrange a meeting with new class teacher and SENCO asking how they are going to implement the support recommended. You will probably have to be really pushy to get your DDs needs met.

In the assessment she mentioned sending a letter to the doctor's explaining the diagnosis and one to school outlining the extra support she will need and things that will help (fidget toys and other things) when I spoke to her a week later on phone she told me they don't send letters to the school. Might be worth me contacting her again and seeing if she can write something up explaining what help she recommends

You shouldn’t get a report. My DS has had a few private assessments and the reports come to me and I then pass them on to school.

I received a diagnosis letter that was sent to her GP that I then forwarded onto the school

Speak to the SENCo in September and take it from there. I’m my area it is expected that parents will give a copy of letters to the school and that is not always made clear by the external services. As others have said, you address the need and not the diagnosis so look at what you think she needs and take it from there. Open dialogue will help and addressing it from a cooperative stand point will also help to oil those interactions. You could explain what you do at home to support her and the impact that you see when you do X or Y.

Get an appointment with the teacher and SENCO in September, they won't change anything just because you have a diagnosis but you should review her provision/support.

What's needed varies from child to child and without seeing your child in class I doubt a paediatrician can recommend anything other than generic recommendations. If you don't feel she is getting the right support then the next most useful step would be to get an Educational Psychologist assessment.

Came across your post looking for support as DD been diagnosed and in sixth form. Gave copy to school in november and told they’d be in touch but nothing.
DD struggles getting up and is often late. Tried loads of things but in the meantime i’ve been telling her even if she’s late then it’s best to go in than not at all so that she doesn’t get way behind. This was working and i praised her for it.
The other day she was very distressed and asked me to get her. Got in the car and cried her heart out.
It transpires that the receptionist (who knows about her adhd and lateness) is now grilling her on why she is always late and telling her that it is not acceptable and that she needs to get to bed sooner etc. So much so that daughter has now said if she is struggling she is not going to go in at all now.
I’ve asked AGAIN for someone to contact me … still no one has.

Any pointers to advice lines would be gratefully received as to how to tackle this.