First for Derry school as Ardnashee awarded ADHD Friendly school status

Ardnashee School and College in Derry is the first school in Northern Ireland to be awarded the prestigious ADHD Friendly School award by the ADHD Foundation for their work with children and young people with ADHD in the last academic year.

Ardnashee School and College is proudly committed to supporting all children within their school, whatever their particular needs, to improve their life chances through education.

Working with children and young people with a range of learning needs, Ardnashee School and College has considered all of the main barriers to learning for children with ADHD and has sought to address them in their everyday practice through significant curriculum development in recent years.

Most notable here is the level of personalisation, innovative and creative timetabling and the Good Morning and Afternoon programmes, in which all children with ADHD can take part in intense physical activity, hydrotherapy, Sensory Circuits and the creation of the Ardnashee Dance Company.

A much-needed resource for children for whom school can be an overwhelming and stressful place at times. Helping children with ADHD to self-regulate was a key feature of the submission for the award with great use of tactile resources across the school. Each classroom has their own budget to provide the tactile resources that the class needs.

The understanding that children with ADHD must move to learn is embedded across the whole school from tactile corridors to the availability of the Sensory space. Such resources are used effectively in this school to assist children and young people in focussing and regulating their attentional and executive functioning skills.

The dynamic and inspirational leadership team have done a wonderful job of celebrating neurodiversity and de-stigmatising neurodiverse conditions. This has been achieved through Arts and project work with the children which have helped them to understand ADHD more.

Ardnashee School and College also provides a range of supports for their parent/ carer community, exploring a range of topics from Sleep to Communication, establishing strong links between home and school in order to further support their neurodiverse students and reduce the isolation that some parents can experience.

On achieving the award, Mr Mc Feeters, Principal of Ardnashee School and College said: “We are absolutely delighted to be the first school in NI to receive this prestigious award.

“In Ardnashee we are always researching new and creative ways of providing learning experiences for our children and young people and this was an excellent opportunity to learn from the National Director of the ADHD foundation.

“Our staff fully embraced all the new learning and this award further recognises their dedication to providing the best education for all our learners.”

Colin Foley, the training director of the ADHD Foundation said: “It has been a privilege to work with the Ardnashee Schol and College.

“The very skilled and supportive staff team have gone above and beyond to make their lessons and their school environment enjoyable, supportive and safe spaces for their children and young people with ADHD and I’m glad that they are getting the recognition for this that they deserve.

“They thoroughly deserve this award and I’m so pleased that they will be the fist school in Northern Ireland to receive it.”

The ADHD Foundation, based in Liverpool, works in partnership with individuals, families, doctors, teachers and other agencies to improving emotional well-being, educational attainment, behaviour and life chances through better understanding and self-management of ADHD, ASD and related learning difficulties.