Reasonable adaptations for adult teacher with ADHD?

[Wildroseladybird]

Anyone experienced this please?

what reasonable adaptations should the school make?

What would they need? Have occy health been involved?

Professional people need to do their jobs, imo. What adaptations would you / they want? Does it involve other people doing more work?

I agree. It depends what the teacher needs.

This is such an ableist statement. Would you expect someone who is blind to do their job without adaptions/adjustments or accessibility software? Just say they need to do their job?

Have a look at Access to Work and apply for it. They can give you access to ND coaching, software that can help you, it depends on what you are specifically having challenges with.

What challenges are you facing in the work place due to your particular spiky profile, strengths and challenges?

Is it to do with executive functioning? Memory? Focus? Sensory processing or interoception?

I will watch the thread for your response to see if I can be helpful :)

Behind - I didn’t say they shouldn’t have support, I asked what adaptations they would need? It is true that everyone needs to do their job, adaptations may allow them to do this but sadly it isn’t always possible. For example if the teacher needs longer to do tasks (eg writing reports or marking books) that may not be possible as schools operate on tight and complicated timetables and kids need prompt feedback for it to be effective.

It would clearly depend on the individual and what parts of the role they need support with?
If its time management, a silent alarm clock that has a subtle light/flash on their desk or computer might provide a 5min warning that the next lesson starts or this one finishes.
A similar alarm to alert of what the next lesson will be- grade etc
Have they been assessed by occupational health?

It might be helpful to ask for your post to be moved to The Staffroom board, OP. This is a board for HE academics and professional services.

This is such an ableist statement. Would you expect someone who is blind to do their job without adaptions/adjustments or accessibility software? Just say they need to do their job?

No. But equally, if a blind person applied for a job as a bus driver and asked for some adaptions to enable them to fulfil their role, I don't think that would be possible. Other than employing a second person to actually do the driving while the blind person sat next to them, I can't think of any feasible adaption.
There are limits.

Frequent breaks, instructions always written down instead of email, quiet work station or room available, plans for being overwhelmed eg member of staff who can cover you for five minutes.

Workload monitored, supportive coaching not micromanaging, SLT aware of RSD in terms of feedback and constructive criticism.

Having ADHD is protected and you are entitled to reasonable adjustments to your work.

OP I would look at your report when you were diagnosed - usually that suggests adaptations that would be needed, where your diagnosis might cause weakness in areas and also your strengths - you can then see how that translates into your working life - you can suggest working to your strengths and make allowances for weaknesses due to learning difference.

so for example if someone is dyslexic where I work they acn present their reports as a mind map / or in point form - so an adaptation there.

Perhaps ask if you could have a meeting with your line manager after 6 weeks or so, and you can make suggestions?

If you have had previous adaptations that have worked then also see if those can be implemented

Juju - how would that work in a busy school. There is a balance between support and is actually feasible/ practical.

I agree. I went to my dds secondary school welcome evening last night and the teachers have an unbelievable amount of work to do.

It’s not a job where you can check out or expect people to go easy on you

Whatever they do, it should be needs based, not condition based. What helps one person won't help another. The school should work with the person, not tell them how to be "helped".

How would that work? Were would this member of staff who's ready to cover frequent breaks/periods of overwhelmed come from?

Are you newly qualified or experienced?
List the issues you anticipate and some suggestions that might work for you
Be prepared that some will not be doable.
There isn't the time, money, spare staff or room to achieve everything, I suspect.

I am witnessing something at my workplace and the person in question doesn’t know I am asking.

Said teacher is outstanding, children and parents alike adore him. Amongst other adults in school however, such as staff meetings, he sees new initiatives as a way to demean his current practice. He quite impulsive around adults and has difficulty talking with self-control. This has now, on two occasions, prompted other members of staff to put in formal complaints. I understand he needs processing time and that his initial responses are not what he actually means… I feel quite sorry for him as I think others need to be aware and make reasonable adjustments. I don’t feel putting in formal complaints is either helpful or very fair…

He is the most kind hearted person and would do anything for anyone.

Thank you all for your responses

I don't know whether this would be considered "reasonable" as an adjustment for the employer to fund, but it sounds like some ADHD-focused work coaching might be helpful for him.

I only know people who've funded ADHD coaches privately or via student finance, but it sounds like that kind of support might be appropriate for his issues.

A lot of professionals are ND!!!

We have an open door policy and one of my team have ADHD and she is exempt so teaches with the door closed. That's it.

I don’t think she said anyone’s expecting to check out or have it easy. Sorry if that’s your impression of someone just wanting equal opportunities to do their job well.

I don't think anyone is saying they aren't but that they need to be able to do the job with those reasonable adaptions. I've worked alongside people who were nd (I'm nd too) and they had loads of adaptions and still couldn't fulfill the role which was awful for the people relying on them and awful for them as well because it eroded their self esteem. They've since moved on to a different type of job thats a much better fit for them and they've thriving in it. There has to be a limit somewhere is what is being said.

I think op this needs to really be a discussion with the employee in question so they've time and support to accurately reflect on their practice and think about what areas are harder for them and what could help in those areas. Oc health should also be involved as they may have a variety of solutions. I'd imagine some form of coaching would be helpful, perhaps some strategies around organisation and accountability for certain tasks. (Thinking of what has been helpful to me in the past). You can also get staff training on certain disabilities so the staff team are informed particularly the management team but again, it's the employees decision ultimately and they would need to be happy for it to be shared with others that they have adhd in the first place.

so you think there should be a member of staff of constant stand by to be available to cover someone for 5 minutes? What member of staff? How ae they going to be free? Who is going to pay them to be available? I don't know what to say to this suggestion. Other than this is something out of cloud cuckoo land. this is insane.

Written messages instead of email? Who is going to deliver them? no micromanaging? who is going to stand by and judge if someone is micromanaging or not?

You seem to think that schools have armies of spare staff hanging round doing nothing, available to step in and cover up colleagues short falls. None of this is reasonable, or possible

I agree, having had stress management and coaching helped me massively. Lots of perfectly reasonable adjustments should be expected. ND employees are very often the most creative, analytical people with great problem solving skills so it makes sense to support. Obviously people should be suited to their job in the most basic sense eg. Taxi drivers need to be able to follow the highway code and evidence driving skill in order to carry out their job.

It is extremely unreasonable to think that schools cannot implement reasonable adjustments.

I'm disabled. I was in an accident in 2014 and I use a wheelchair. I've been in education since 2005 and I taught mostly full time from 2016 until til last year.

It is absolutely possible for reasonable adjustments to be put in place. My school were very helpful,

Yes teachers are busy. That does not mean schools are exempt from the equalities act and if someone is a good teacher they will go to a lot of effort to retain them.

One of the unions (I forget which) has a disabled teachers section. They are very useful and can offer good advice.

I did once have someone ask if their assistance dog could be in the cab of the emergency vehicle with them.