Understanding ADHD in Education

ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions affecting children and adults alike. It also flies under the radar a lot of the time, with a high rate of underdiagnosis (especially in girls/women). 

When it comes to education, ADHD presents unique challenges, particularly in traditional classrooms that may not always accommodate the varied needs of learners. At Classroom Secrets, this is something we not only understand professionally but also personally. One of our founders, ex-teacher Claire Riley, was diagnosed a few years ago as an adult in her late thirties… 

The possibility of ADHD never crossed my mind until I was well into entrepreneurship, and it started being talked about more. I just always felt passionate about 'finding ways around things', but it turns out there was a reason for that. 

What did ADHD look like for me as a child? Staring into space, my mum crying at every parents’ evening, and me falling years behind despite being capable. I have distinct memories of being in my Year 3 classroom, drifting in and out of the lesson, wondering what we were doing and not understanding why I had just 'lost' half of the lesson. I'd also ask my neighbour what task we were supposed to be doing, and she said I should have been listening. But I thought I was. I wasn't badly behaved, I just spent those school days playing in my head. 

How did it get better? 

When I got into Year 5, I started to 'wake up'. I think there were a few reasons: 

1. More maturity and self-awareness (I'll touch more on self-awareness further down). I started to understand the power of choice and that I could choose to find the lesson interesting, which would help me stay present. 

2. A male teacher – I don't think it was anything to do with the fact that he was male; I think it was that his behaviour management reduced my distractions. 

3. In Year 5, I was in a mixed Year 4/5 class. I was repeating some of the same concepts from Year 4, and it seemed to just click. In my opinion, ADHD children who have fallen behind because they drift off have the ability to catch up very quickly if they are able. I witnessed this a lot when I was a tutor. 

By the time I did my SATs (we were the pilot Year 6), things had really picked up for me, and I went on to be placed in the top set for every subject in Year 7. It really can turn on a pin. 

In teaching, I leaned into being myself, drawing on my personal experience of finding school hard due to focus and concentration issues. This understanding allowed me to empathise with pupils who faced similar challenges. However, the high workload in teaching eventually took its toll. I think this was made worse by the constant need to manage multiple tasks at once, a habit that had followed me for years. 

I remember when this need for task management first became apparent. I must have been about 16, walking from my house to the bus stop, trying to remember the things I needed to buy in town. I felt stressed, thinking that if I forgot even one thing, the trip would feel like a waste of time. That's when I realised I needed a system to help me navigate adult life. From that point on, I began capturing every task—whether it was something I needed to buy, a chore to complete, or an action for someone’s birthday. Over time, I refined this system, using different categories and technology to help me manage my ADHD. 

Task capturing has been brilliant for managing my ADHD, but it has its downsides. I capture so much that it can become overwhelming, and this was where I struggled to sustain teaching. The constant influx of tasks, combined with the demands of teaching, made it difficult to find a balance. 

Fast forward very quickly to Classroom Secrets in 2019. Even as an adult, ADHD presents challenges that can be hard to cope with. Our team came into the office back then, and it was busy and bustling. Being the founder, there was always someone there willing to distract me. I look back now and see those days as dark days. I had two young girls (1 and 3), and I’d go to the office pretty much every day to have meeting after meeting, making it impossible to get any work done. So, I’d get up at 5am (sometimes 4am) to do the work I knew I wouldn’t be able to do in the office because it was too distracting. I’d do the same every evening as well. It wasn’t the right environment for me. I knew it, but I had a fear of missing out and being judged if I took some days to work from home. 

There could be a child in your class who can’t concentrate because their neighbour keeps talking to them, and as an adult, you might not realise the impact that is having on them. 

What is ADHD, and How Does it Affect Learning? 

ADHD is characterised by persistent patterns of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. In the classroom, this often presents as difficulty staying on task, fidgeting, or trouble organising work. Yet, it’s not just about the challenges—ADHD learners also bring unique perspectives and strengths that can make them stand out, particularly in creative and problem-solving tasks. It’s common for ADHD thinkers to think outside the box and make connections where others can’t. 

You may think instantly of art lessons, drama lessons, and topic work, but the creativity can be in the systems themselves, and these are what will help children progress in the school life they find difficult. It’s important for children to be praised for what they do well, but even better to be encouraged to use their strengths to make the rest of school manageable. 

Founding Classroom Secrets is a great example of making connections to create something. I could see what was possible, and I connected that to what I felt I was personally missing as an inexperienced teacher, teaching primary when my training had been in secondary. 

When I reflect on my teaching days (and also teaching now – my own kids and the club I teach at my children’s school), for me it’s all about a process that works for the child. When I was in school, we had to use set methods in maths; we didn’t have the freedom and creativity to try different methods and go with the ones that worked for us. (As I grew older, I learned to use my methods anyway.) In my teaching, I encouraged children to think about the system they were building that they could then follow. 

I developed the way we create and think about resources at Classroom Secrets through tutoring children left behind just like me. It amazed me (and still does) that a Year 5 child could fill in all their gaps in a concept in a single lesson and be working at the level required if you just break it down in the right way and make it possible for them. 

Also, repetition is key. If you’ve ever had a conversation with someone and asked them three times to repeat themselves because you zoned out halfway through the first two times, you’ve got an insight into why repetition is important. All children need repetition, but ADHD children even more so because of the times they are potentially zoning out. 

From my own experience, it's possible to be high-performing with ADHD, but it's all about the systems and processes you create to make that happen. It sounds silly, but I look for them and create them all the time. For example, the mental maths test was my ultimate enemy because I couldn’t remember the question, so I trained myself in what I needed to jot down so that I could come back and answer that question outside of its 20-second allocation when I finished another question early. Having ADHD is like a game where you're trying to use your strengths and weaknesses to execute a strategy that will deliver despite your disadvantage. 

In teaching and tutoring, I could recognise an ‘affinity’ with certain students (I even do it with colleagues). As a tutor in particular, I really honed in on my understanding of coming up with strategies, especially in maths. 

The Struggles and Strengths of ADHD Children 

Children with ADHD face a range of struggles, from staying focused in lessons to managing time effectively on any project work or reading they may be doing. But these same children also exhibit strengths, including creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, and the ability to hyper-focus on tasks they’re passionate about. For teachers, it’s vital to understand both sides—recognising the struggles while also nurturing these strengths. 

How Teachers Can Support Children with ADHD 

Supporting children with ADHD requires both understanding and flexibility. Teachers can break tasks down into smaller, manageable steps, offer regular movement breaks, and use visual aids to reinforce learning. Developing strong, supportive relationships with these children is also essential to help them feel confident and capable in the classroom. 

Over the last few years, I’ve done a lot of ‘figuring out’ when it comes to ADHD and the way I have done things in both life and business. When I step back, I can see that the business has been influenced heavily, like the fact that we always worked from home before Covid. 

I have several children in my life where we’re exploring the possibility of ADHD. As a child myself, I don’t think anyone really tried to understand me. There were people that innately did, but none of those were teachers. Now, I try to pass on what I’ve learned about how to manage ADHD (even though I didn’t know I was managing it) to the children I know. I’m not going to give you advice to help children with ADHD; I’m going to tell you the advice I would give to them. Maybe you’ll pass it on? 

1. Self-awareness will make you great: You are clever in a way that school doesn’t always recognise. School might seem like it rewards people for being the same, but the world will reward you for being able to think in the way you do. 

2. Choose to find a solution: You have two choices. You can say, ‘this is harder for me, I can’t do it,’ and find a way to do the bare minimum, or you can find that place in your brain where suddenly something you didn’t want to do becomes a good idea… you know what I mean. You’ve experienced it before, haven’t you? You get a little jump in your heart about doing something, and you see the upside. Find ways to make that happen. What is the upside? How can you choose to be a little bit more open to this and choose to want to do it? The word choose is very powerful for you. You can choose to let it stop you, or you can choose to lean into your brilliance. 

3. Create systems: Struggling with times tables? Of course you are. They rely on memory, and yours isn’t always so great. But… you don’t have to do it the same way as everyone else. You can create systems to work things out quickly. For me, when I have to do times tables, I write out the multiples in order in a column first, just so I feel confident that I can fall back on my systems. This works for all sorts of tasks. When you have to hold things in your head, it’s stressful, as our memory just isn’t great. So don’t just think about the problem itself, think about how to tackle the problem first. I believe this is the difference between ADHDers who struggle with life and those who create wild success. (Look up the many famous ADHD people who have made this work for them.) 

4. Do it your way: If it works for you and you get the result needed, do it your way. You’ll remember your own ideas better and be able to stick to them. If you need to draw out an array every time you do a multiplication, that’s OK, because practice will progress you to something quicker when you are ready. 

5. Know what helps you listen: At 7 years old, I discovered labels—the ones on your clothes that have that silky feeling when you rub them together. Feeling labels helps me listen, and I always have a label with me. It gives my bored fingers something to do. Find your label to listen better and help your mind stay in the same room as your body. 

When we think of ADHD, it’s easy to jump straight to thinking about boys being physically disruptive, but in reality, it’s the inability to give attention to the thing others want us to focus on. Teachers and children have to work together on this. Children need to be willing to find ways to focus. Teachers need to support children in figuring it out for themselves.