ELSA

Emotional

Literacy

Support

Assistant

Mrs Bailey is here at school to help with emotional literacy, or in other words here to aid the children to understand their emotions and help to manage them in a healthy and well balanced way. 

ELSA's have assisted children with their emotional understanding and shared management plans with children to learn how to self regulate their own emotions going on into the future. Children who have attended sessions have shown progress in their own emotional skills and often have shared these skills with other pupils in their class creating an emotionally aware classroom. 

ELSA sessions are run on an individual basis where the need of the child is specific, or in small supportive groups where children share similar needs. 

If you have a concern about your child's emotional regulation, understanding or well being please contact your child's class teacher as a first port of call, we can then arrange to meet and assess the child's suitability for ELSA support. 

School staff can also refer children or families to other agencies including Young Minds Matter, Teens in Crisis, Toucan (play therapy) or further support as required. 

E         Empathise

L         Listen

S         Support

A         Advise

 What is ELSA?

ELSA as a time limited intervention

Rather than using an ELSA as part of a pupil’s permanent support structure, it is intended for ELSA intervention to be time-limited to assist the development of specific skills, usually up to a term, but this can vary. While some group work may be delivered in 6 or 7 weeks, individual programmes will usually require longer (probably 8 to 12 weeks) in order to establish the trusting relationship necessary for pupils have confidence to share freely, and to allow the pupil and ELSA to agree some appropriate programme aims together. Once new skills are acquired, time needs to be allowed for consolidation. Further intervention towards additional aims could be considered at a later date if desired. As an ELSA is part of the permanent staff within school, some informal contact may be maintained for a time to enable graduated withdrawal of support for those pupils who may need this. We do not have a standard permitted duration for ELSA intervention, since every pupil’s needs are different and bespoke to them. Allowing insufficient time will severely limit what the support may otherwise achieve.

Ongoing support of pupils

It is not intended that an ELSA will work indefinitely with a pupil. If realistic intervention outcomes are identified at the start of the programme or a short way in (when the ELSA has developed an understanding of needs), it should be clear when those outcomes have been achieved. At this point the normal sessions should draw to an end.

In some cases however, a different kind of work may continue more informally, involving a lower level of contact. Some pupils may need to regularly ‘touch base’ with the ELSA to review their progress. They may need the opportunity to talk about difficulties as they learn to apply with greater consistency the new coping strategies they have developed. New learning will rarely follow an even path. It is helpful however to gradually reduce contact as time goes on. This will avoid over-dependence and encourage the pupil to develop supportive relationships with other adults in school, especially classroom support assistants.

The ability of a child to move away from ELSA support is something to be celebrated as it signifies a degree of success. Where there are pupils with long-term complex needs, this would not mean perpetual ELSA intervention. Such pupils will need a broader support network so that the ELSA is free to work with other pupils needing support.