ELSA

ELSA

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant at Brynllywarch Hall School

What is an ELSA?

ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) is a profession within a school environment where they have been trained by top educational psychologists throughout the UK. The trained ELSA will carry out fun and exciting tasks for the pupils to undergo and complete. When it comes to being an ELSA, there is a learner centred approach and a focus on what they are thinking about and how they are feeling in the moment. This is to help develop a learner’s emotional well-being, so that when the pupils leave the classroom after every ELSA session, they will have a smile on their face.

How is ELSA carried out?

An ELSA session occurs once a week for a variety of year groups and lasts approximately one hour. During this time, the pupils will be taught in a classroom-based setting, sometimes with a small group or even as a 1 to 1 intervention by the ELSA trained staff member.

How ELSA benefits our Pupils.

At Brynllywarch Hall School, ELSA helps our pupils to learn and understand their emotions and respect the feelings of their fellow pupils. ELSA helps to provide the time and space for pupils to think about their circumstances and how they manage them. It helps by putting things into perspective for our pupils so that they can take the time to ask themselves how they may be feeling. This is usually done through the use of drawings as it helps our pupils to visually see what it is they are thinking about, this then allows the pupil to reflect and think what they may do differently to reach a better understanding of their emotional well-being.

Further information can be found here.