Berrow Church of England Primary School and Preschool
Achieving together through inspiration and respect
ELSA - Emotional Literacy Support Assistant
Emotional Literacy Support - ELSA
Welcome to Berrow C of E Primary School’s ELSA Web Page.
ELSAs are ‘Emotional Literacy Support Assistants’. They help children and young people learn to understand their emotions and respect the feelings of those around them. They provide them with the time and space for pupils to think about their personal circumstances and how they manage them. Children learn lots of new skills at school not just academic but also social and emotional skills. Whilst some children may require extra help with Maths or English, others will benefit from support with emotional side of their development.
Our ELSA is Mrs Gibson. Mrs Gibson has been trained through Educational Psychologists in order to provide support for individuals and groups on:
- Recognising emotions
- Self-esteem
- Loss and Bereavement
- Social skills
- Friendship
- Anger management
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Bullying
The support from the Educational Psychologist continues throughout the year in supervised sessions with Mrs Gibson and other ELSAs within the area.
Please have a look at our leaflet below which explains a little more about ELSA and how the sessions work.
You can find out more about ELSAs at:
Listed below are some websites and recommended books that you might find helpful
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse
Beautiful book – a good all rounder for many areas of ELSA. Contains lots of lovely quotes about life.
Anxiety
This link gives examples of some strategies you could use to help calm an anxious child:
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/stress-better/2016/03/49-phrases-to-calm-an-anxious-child
Self-esteem
This link gives some good ideas on how to help a child build their self-esteem and includes a short u-tube video:
http://www.familylives.org.uk/advice/primary/health-and-development/helping-your-child-build-self-esteem
Anger Management
Young Minds is an excellent site for parental advice:
Bereavement
https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/for-parents/parents-survival-guide
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
If you feel your child would benefit from this intervention or would like any more information please contact your class teacher, Mrs Baldwin-Wheat (SENDCo) or Mrs Gibson (HLTA, ELSA).