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 (PDF, 553.69 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.
Click here to join the growing network of Enfield schools who are skilling up their TAs/LSAs as Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) this summer.
How to get involved
To express your interest, email amber.tiplady@enfield.gov.uk. Information sessions are usually held in the Spring and Summer term hosted by Elena Kombou and Amber Tiplady, who both deliver the ELSA training. Training is usually delivered in the Autumn term will consist of 6 whole-day sessions