The aim for ELSA is to:

• Help children to understand their emotions and feelings better;
• Help children to feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries;
• Help children socially to form and maintain relationships;
• Promote self-esteem and ensure everyone knows that they are valued;
• Enable children to think about their situation without feeling judged or criticised;
• Encourage children to be confident and respect individuality;
• Help children to develop emotional resilience and manage setbacks.

The ELSA programme:

• Relates to our school values of ‘Take care’, generating a sense of belonging and looking after ourselves, as well as others and the world;
• Involves recognising emotions, self-esteem, anxiety management, social skills, friendship skills, anger management, loss and bereavement;
• Celebrates successes and achievement in all areas of life;
• Provides opportunities to develop a sense of self-worth through taking responsibility for themselves;
• Provides opportunities to reflect.

Sessions pursue the above aims through:

• Supporting pupils going through difficulties, for example, bereavement, breakdown of parents’ relationship, changes at home or school, care system including adoption;
• Working to specific programme aims that are realistic for each child;
• Planning sessions with objectives that build towards the child’s programme aims;
• Providing a reflective space where children are able to share honestly their thoughts and feelings, learn strategies to manage their needs and feel safe and secure within the school environment;
• Helping children feel happy and safe in school and to reach their potential educationally;
• Removing the barriers to learning in order to have happy children in school and at home;
• Delivering sessions in a caring, supportive and fun way;
• Finding ways to cope with their challenges by helping them build the skills that will help them be able to cope and work through the problems;
• Giving the opportunity to talk about difficulties as they learn to apply with greater consistency the new coping strategies they have developed.

Identifying Needs and Warning Signs

Teaching staff identify pupils at risk of low levels of wellbeing and mental health and implement provision to support the specific areas of wellbeing identified. Alongside this, staff are continually looking out for possible signs of change in pupil wellbeing as part of our commitment to safeguarding. These may include:

• Changes in behaviour;
• Changes in eating/ sleeping (communicated by parents/carers);
• Becoming socially withdrawn;
• Changes in activity and mood;
• Talking or joking about self-harm or suicide;
• Expressing feelings of failure, uselessness or loss of hope;
• Repeated physical pain or nausea with no evident cause;
• An increase in lateness or absenteeism.

Privacy

The following guidance does not apply to safeguarding issues, where the ELSA is obliged to share information out of concern for either the pupils’ safety or the safety of others.

The ELSA will need to respect the privacy of pupils and their families. With the development of a trusting relationship, the ELSA may find that a pupil talks freely and in detail about incidents or situations that are troubling them. There may be times when the ELSA thinks it would be helpful for other members of staff to be aware of a child’s concerns or a family situation. Sharing information will be done with sensitivity to the child and their families. It may sometimes be appropriate for an ELSA to talk with the pupil about what they would like to share and to secure their agreement so that their trust is maintained.