Emotional Literacy Support
Children and young people can often face challenges in their lives that detract from their ability to engage with learning and manage and make sense of day to day situations. Some learners at the Richard Barnes Academy may need more support than others with their emotional wellbeing.
Our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA), Emma Dove, supports identified learners with a wide range of emotional needs such as:
- Loss and bereavement
- Recognising emotions
- Self-esteem
- Anxiety
- Social skills
- Expressing feelings and emotional regulation
- Friendship skills
- Conflict
- Anger management
- Coping skills and strategies
- Personal Resilience
- Self-regulation.
As an ELSA, Emma has undergone specialist training with Peterborough’s Educational Psychologist Service, learning how to support our pupils’ emotional literacy through evidence based approaches. Emma also receives regular professional supervision from an Educational Psychologist to support her in this important work.
An ELSA can plan and deliver individual and/or group sessions to identified children and young people who need additional support with their emotional needs, supporting them to understand and regulate their own emotions and develop their personal resilience by developing new skills and coping strategies.
Most ELSA programmes will last for 6 to 12 weeks, supporting the child or young person to learn specific new skills or coping strategies. Clear programme aims (SMART targets) are set early on at the start of each programme and each session has an objective - something that the ELSA wants to help the young person to understand or achieve. Sessions are fun and engaging, tailored to the strengths and interests of the child or young person.