Mother details ADHD child’s rapid slide from excitement to anxiety over new secondary school rules
Parent Kirsten Matthews argues that her son's former school did not sufficiently consider his neurodiversity before issuing punishments. Image: iStock/Getty Images
"You can't punish the SEN out of a child," parent argues, after her son went off sick from Ark Alexandra Academy, never to return.
A mother has spoken about how her older child, who has ADHD, autism and a bowel condition, went from being “excited” about going to secondary school to wanting to leave, after racking up three hours of detention within his first three weeks as a year seven.
In a vivid description of her son’s first days at Ark Alexandra Academy in Hastings, East Sussex, Kirsten Matthews said her son Michael* had become so stressed after starting at the school as a year seven that he had been left “doubled up in pain, on the toilet,” after receiving a string of punishments for what she said were minor rules infractions, including over uniform.
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By Warwick Mansell for EDUCATION UNCOVERED
Published: 6 June 2025
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