What is an ELSA

An ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) is a specialist teaching assistant with a wealth of experience of working with children. An ELSA is a warm and caring person who acknowledges that children and young people learn best when they feel happier and their emotional needs are being addressed. Their aim is to remove the barriers to learning, to allow children to be happy in school and at home. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists, who apply their professional knowledge of children’s social and emotional development to areas of need experienced by pupils. They provide on-going professional supervision to help maintain high quality in the work undertaken by ELSAs, thereby helping to ensure safe practice for ELSAs and pupils alike.

ELSAs are trained to plan and deliver programmes of support to pupils in their school who may be experiencing temporary or long term additional emotional needs. A lot of work that ELSAs do will be on an individual basis with one child, however, there are cases where group sessions may be appropriate such as when working on social skills and friendship skills.

Newbold Church School's ELSA is Mrs Elaine Kirk, who is contactable via the school office.

Updated October 2024