“Often I struggle to focus as my ADHD makes my mind race at 100 miles per hour and I get distracted easily” – NRHS pupil.
As a young person with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD or Autism, they can often feel misunderstood and confused about the best choices to make and why sometimes they make the choices that they do. This was the story presented to our KS4 pupils by Sgt Dan Tranter.
Sgt Tranter has had a long and successful career within the military, but success wasn’t always natural to him. In school, he would often feel out of place and would sometimes make questionable choices. It wasn’t until his son began showing signs of ADHD that Sgt Tranter started noticing similarities between his behaviours at that young age that he was assessed and was diagnosed with ADHD and high-level Autism at the age of 37.
Sgt Tranter spoke about his journey, it was one that a lot of our pupils were able to identify and relate to. He explained how he coped and had a great open dialogue with pupils about how he doesn’t let an ADHD diagnosis define him. Pupils left the presentation with a better understanding of themselves and it certainly made them think about their own journey.
We thank Sgt Tranter wholeheartedly for coming in to speak to our pupils and to Jason Clarke for introducing Dan to us.
To this day, Sgt Tranter lives by this mantra.
“Everything that has happened in your life, good and bad, has got you to where you are today. So, everything that happens to you from now, can get you to where you want to be”.