Chris Benson
Former Headteacher. Education Lead, ADHD UK. First serving UK headteacher to publicly disclose living with ADHD.
I spent 25 years in education, 15 of them as a headteacher across UK state and international schools. Five years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD myself — it confirmed what years of working with neurodivergent children had already told me, and it gave me a clarity of purpose that has shaped everything I’ve done since.
I’m also the dad of an autistic son and a daughter with ADHD who spent eight months unable to face school. So when I say I understand what families go through, I mean it in the most personal sense. I’ve sat in every seat at the table.
Today I run HeadFirst Consulting and NDChat, working with families, schools and organisations across the UK.
Everything I do comes back to one belief: See a child differently; see a different child.
• Education Lead, ADHD UK
• Contributing author, Tes Magazine
• Ambassador, Ambitious About Autism
• Founding member, ASCL Neuroinclusive Leaders’ Community
• Founder, NDChat
• Speaker, Confederation of School Trusts People and Culture Conference 2026
• Year-long whole-school partnership with Highfields Primary School
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How I work
Lived experience
As a pupil, a teacher, a headteacher and a parent of two neurodivergent children.
Leadership experience
15 years as a headteacher, accountable for making inclusion work within real budgets and pressures.
Evidence and expertise
Working alongside researchers, clinicians and specialists through ADHD UK and a wider network, so everything is grounded in current evidence.
Neurodiversity & Education
See a child differently; see a different child
Chris Benson is the first serving headteacher in the UK to publicly disclose living with ADHD on a national level. He has lived neurodivergence as a pupil, a teacher, a headteacher of 15 years — and as the parent of an autistic son and a daughter with ADHD who spent eight months unable to face school. He knows what it looks like from every seat at the table. That changes everything about how he works with schools.
Neurodivergence is not a deficit to be corrected. It is a difference to be understood. Educators don’t need to be experts in neurodevelopmental conditions — they need to be experts in the children in front of them.
Education Lead, ADHD UK. Contributing author, Tes Magazine. Ambassador, Ambitious About Autism. Founding member, ASCL Neuroinclusive Leaders’ Community. Founder, NDChat.
“I was immediately bowled over by how exceptional Chris Benson is. An incredibly impressive person who has done a lot.”
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