About ELSA
Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA), is an educational psychology-led national programme that trains teaching assistants, learning support assistants and learning mentors to work alongside their existing roles to provide bespoke social, emotional and mental health interventions to pupils in their schools.
View our full ELSA Brochure for 2026 (PDF, 516.84 KB).
ELSAs attend half-termly supervision sessions with an educational psychologist and an assistant educational psychologist.
As part of the intervention, ELSAs can focus on any of the following areas:
- Emotional literacy skills
- Friendship and play skills
- Emotion regulation skills
- Skills to cope with worries and anxiety
- Skills to cope with grief and loss
All of our ELSA training materials are aligned with E-TIPSS and the ARC Framework (Blaustein, M. E., & Kinniburgh, K. M. (2017). As a team, we have started looking at the ELSA training materials and resources to explore how these might be updated to reflect the diverse communities within Enfield. As part of the training, we therefore encourage ELSAs to think further about the importance of adapting their approach and practice so that it considers the needs of children from diverse backgrounds.
ELSAs are also invited to attend termly network meetings within Enfield where we share best practice, network with other ELSAs and line managers and refresh our ELSA knowledge through continuing professional development (CPD), training sessions. The most recent network meeting we had was attended by Sheila Burton (founder of the ELSA Network) and provided CPD on writing therapeutic stories through a workshop.
ELSAs in the London borough of Enfield
There are 83 trained ELSAs in the borough, across 26 primary schools and 7 secondary schools.
How to get involved
Please complete the expression of interest for ELSA training form to register members of staff onto our next cohort of Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) training for autumn term 2026.