ELSA- Emotional Literacy Support Assistant

Mrs Hall- ELSA

What is an ELSA?

An ELSA is an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. ELSAs are trained and supervised by Educational Psychologists. Mrs Hall is our ELSA at Stoborough Primary. An ELSA's job is to support a young person to make sense of their emotions, understanding how they are feeling and assist them to reframe their thoughts and behaviour. 

What areas can an ELSA support? 

It is important that ELSAs work within their scope of practice and only support areas which they have received training in. ELSAs aim to provide support for a wide range of emotional needs, such as: 

• Emotional regulation
• Self-esteem
• Social skills and problem solving
• Relationships and Friendships
• Understanding emotions
• Loss and bereavement

How does ELSA work? 

Children are usually referred for ELSA support by their class teacher or SENCo. The ELSA and Inclusion Leader meet regularly to discuss the referral forms and to identify and prioritise which children require the weekly sessions.

An ELSA: 

• helps children to find their own solution
• provides intervention as part of our school offer to support emotional wellbeing 
• will work with a child for a fixed term, usually six sessions
• ELSA sessions will usually take place weekly for around 30 minutes
• Targets will be agreed by the ELSA and another adult who knows the child well.

ELSA sessions will be individually planned for a child. An example sessions may include: 

• Welcome and feeling check-in
• A fun ice-breaker
• Review last session
• Practise/teaching focused on agreed target

What next? 

The ELSA will liaise with parents, teachers and other professionals to discuss progress. Once the sessions finish, the child will hopefully be able to implement and transfer any guidance and new skills taught into their regular routine. It may be that further support is required in the future, with a similar or different focus, in which case the child can be re-referred if necessary. 

We use the Hamish and Milo wellbeing intervention scheme to support our pupils in their ELSA sessions.