Mental Health

Bidston Village C.E Primary School
Mental Health

Hello and welcome to our school ELSA page!

We are pleased to be able to share information with parents about Emotional Literacy Support on the school website. On this page we aim to post ideas and helpful advice on how you can help your child; for example in areas such as empathy, self-esteem or perhaps to pick up some tips about calming techniques. Parents and carers will be able to find out about recommended books which may be useful and links to other websites for some self-help at home.

What is ELSA?

There will always be children and young people in schools facing life challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning. Some will require greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.

We are lucky enough to have two qualified Emotional Literacy Support Assistants one in KS1, Miss Jebb and one in KS2, Mrs Jones. They have been trained by Educational Psychologists to plan and deliver programmes of support to pupils who are experiencing temporary or longer term additional emotional needs. The majority of ELSA work is delivered on an individual basis, but sometimes small group work is more appropriate, especially in the areas of social and friendship skills. Sessions are fun, we use a range of activities such as: games, role-play with puppets or arts and craft. 

In ELSA we aim to provide support for a wide range of emotional needs:

  • Recognising emotions

  • Self-esteem

  • Social skills

  • Friendship skills

  • Anger management

  • Loss and bereavement

How Does ELSA Work?

Children are usually referred for ELSA support by their class teacher, Senior Leaders or on occasion the SENCo. We discuss the referral forms and to identify and prioritise which children require a weekly  programme for the next 6-8 weeks. With the programme aims in mind we then plan support sessions to facilitate the pupil in developing new skills and coping strategies that allow them to manage social and emotional demands more effectively.

Supporting - Not Fixing

Remember, ELSAs are not there to fix children's problems. What we can do is provide emotional support.

We aim to establish a warm, respectful relationship with a pupil and to provide a reflective space where they are able to share honestly their thoughts and feelings.

It needs to be appreciated that change cannot necessarily be achieved rapidly and is dependent upon the context and complexity of the presenting issues. For children with complex or long-term needs it is unrealistic to expect ELSA intervention to resolve all their difficulties, however support will be designed to target specific aspects of a child's need. Training and development of ELSAs is an ongoing process and wisdom is required to recognise when issues are beyond the level of expertise that could reasonably be expected of an ELSA. The Educational Psychologist that works with our school would be able to offer advice on suitability or nature of ELSA involvement in complex cases.

So, what do the children think?

On completion of their ELSA programmes, we ask the children to reflect on their experiences and to kindly leave us some feedback. Here are some of the lovely comments we receive:  

“I like coming to ELSA, it makes me happy!”

"ELSA has been really fun and has helped me with making new friendships"

"ELSA has helped me with confidence".

"It has helped me a lot with my anger and my problems in the playground. I enjoyed it very much!".

"I enjoyed ELSA and I want to stay!".

"ELSA has helped me to be more sensible in class".

Wirral CAMHS has been successful in a bid for two years funding which will enable us to develop and roll out MHST’s across 53 local primary schools. The new service is being developed with a formal launch planned for Autumn/Winter 2020 following the completion of the Education Mental Health Practitioner training. At Bidston Village we are lucky to be one of those 53 schools.

The service has three core functions:

  • To deliver brief evidence-based interventions to support children and young people with mild-moderate mental health problems

  • To support schools in developing their whole school approach to mental health

  • To provide timely advice to school staff and liaison with external services, to help children and young people to get the right help and stay in education