Rethinking School – The Issues With ADHD Support

Week 12 - of our Rethinking School Series

Last week, we explored the challenges students face trying to get support with autism, and how some families turn to homeschooling to provide stability. This week, our focus moves to ADHD—a condition increasingly shaping the educational choices families make. Difficulties with concentration, impulsivity, and emotional regulation can make mainstream schooling overwhelming for many children with ADHD. For some, homeschooling offers a calmer, more flexible environment; for others, it becomes a last resort when schools cannot provide the right support. Understanding the link between ADHD and education is vital if we’re to create learning spaces where every student can thrive.

For many students, ADHD-related challenges are the primary driver behind school avoidance. This is not because they dislike school or reject learning; rather, their ability to cope with the demands of a traditional classroom is severely compromised when their needs go unmet. Delays in diagnosis and treatment only add to the difficulty. Families often describe securing an ADHD assessment as an uphill battle, with waiting lists stretching into years. Even after diagnosis, accessing consistent medication is far from guaranteed. Repeated shortages of ADHD medication—highlighted in recent NHS reports—leave children without treatment for weeks or even months at a time. These gaps directly affect learning, behaviour, and wellbeing.

The obstacles don’t stop at healthcare. Schools themselves often lack the resources or training to provide appropriate support, leaving families unfairly judged and blamed for behaviours outside their control. The reality is systemic: a national failure to provide timely diagnosis, adequate treatment, and consistent educational adjustments. Prior to the pandemic, the average wait for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) appointment was around 40 weeks. Today, some families report waiting over three years just for an initial assessment. During this limbo, children fall further behind academically and socially, while parents are left feeling abandoned by the very systems designed to help.

Rigid education policies only compound these problems.

The insistence that children attend school every day, regardless of their health or needs, creates a damaging paradox for families affected by ADHD. The sensory overload, long hours of concentration, and pressure to sit still and quite often worsen symptoms, leading to burnout, disengagement, and escalating behavioural issues.

Similarly, forcing young people to sit GCSEs or A-levels at a fixed point in time does not account for the reality of fluctuating focus, anxiety, or medication access. Rather than showcasing ability, exams taken under these conditions often reflect circumstance instead of true potential—limiting future opportunities in education, training, and work.

In this context, homeschooling can provide a vital alternative that supports both wellbeing and learning. For children with ADHD, learning at home allows families to adapt the environment: shorter bursts of study, movement breaks, fewer distractions, and teaching styles tailored to individual attention patterns. Without the constant strain of a classroom environment, many children are able to stabilise, regain confidence, and make real progress.

Perhaps most importantly, homeschooling removes some of the daily stressors ADHD students face: rigid timetables, sensory overload, and unpredictable classroom dynamics. By creating a calmer, more predictable setting, homeschooling enables children to focus on learning rather than on managing constant overwhelm.

How we are doing it differently

When learners are struggling with ADHD, we first assess their capacity to focus and retain information. If concentration is particularly difficult, we pause formal lessons and instead prioritise wellbeing activities such as rest, healthy eating, movement, and seeking appropriate support. When or if they start taking medication we adjust as we go along.

For those with attention difficulties, we may begin with a short set of exercises and a one-to-one session, gradually increasing the number of sessions on calmer days to help them keep pace with peers. Participation in group sessions and study buddy programmes is offered as an option, never an obligation, allowing students to engage at their own pace.

Learners with ADHD are often acutely aware of their own challenges and the impact they may have on others, but self-regulation can be difficult. Our overarching aim is to ensure they continue to receive an education while protecting their wellbeing and preventing isolation. If we need to teach in 10-minute sections followed by a “wiggle break,” that’s what we do. On good days, we can expand into group work; on tough days, we adapt and do whatever is manageable.

This week, we’ve examined how ADHD-related challenges are driving more families to choose homeschooling, whether as a proactive step toward stability or a necessary response to unmet needs in mainstream education.

The conversation doesn’t end here—next week, we’ll be turning our attention to those with depression and anxiety.