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“I talk to people a lot better because in the first lesson, I didn’t talk at all. I talked to Miss … I whispered in Miss’s ear if I wanted to say something … but last time I did it, which was yesterday. I just … I was speaking.” – Alois (quoted in Purcell, Kelly & Woods, 2023)
The quote above is from Alois, a secondary school pupil reflecting on how time spent with his ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) helped build his confidence in class.
Although there is limited large-scale research on the effectiveness of ELSAs, there are smaller studies, such as the one quoted above, that suggest they can be highly effective across all age groups. Headteachers and class teachers often report reductions in absenteeism, as well as increased confidence and engagement in learning amongst children on the programme.
Here are some key steps to maximise the impact of ELSAs at different stages of your implementation journey.
The ELSA programme is run by Educational Psychologists and involves training school staff (usually teaching assistants) in theoretical psychology, active listening and practical activities. The programme is based on the principle that teaching emotional literacy – i.e. the ability to recognise and manage emotion in themselves and others, helps children to thrive.
ELSAs support children who are:
Dr Joanna Wood is a lead psychologist at Real Group who has spent a considerable amount of time training ELSAs. “A good ELSA is one who is warm, interested and level with the child” she explains. “It’s not a matter of I’m going to fix you, rather let’s find a way through this together.”
If you are just starting out, it can be helpful to follow a framework to enable you to embed and sustain ELSA. Dr Hannah Fairall, an Educational Psychologist and academic lead working for Real Group, completed her doctoral thesis on ELSA implementation. She has developed this downloadable framework which provides valuable step-by-step guidance.
[DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY: Of Dr Fairall’s Implementation Framework here]
Developing a robust referral system hinges on having a detailed mental health provision map in place, matched to your pupil population. This helps the SENCO and Senior Mental Health Lead work out when ELSA intervention will be tried as a first port of call, as opposed to (for example) using Nurture Groups, or the school counsellor.
Ideally, the ELSA needs a clear target to focus on, and inappropriate referrals should be filtered out at either end of the scale, i.e.
“There must be a clearly defined element of emotional literacy need,” says Joanna. “You would never dream of implementing a literacy intervention without a consistent referral process and clearly defined target outcomes at the end. ELSA should work in a similar way.”
Creating a simple triage map and formal referral process can contribute to this. “Sometimes ELSAs become so embedded into a school that staff feel there’s no need for formal referral,” warns Joanna, “but it really does help to have a clear system.”
[EXPLORE FURTHER: New to-role Senior Mental Health Leads can learn how to build and enhance the mental health provision map for their setting on our senior mental health lead training courses]
[BECOME AN ELSA: With the Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant with ELSA status]
“In reality, as much as we try to avoid it, ELSAs are dealing with all sorts of very challenging things,” Joanna emphasises. “People who work in education often underestimate the weight of the emotional load that can be passed from child to adult” she explains, “this is why supervision is so very important, but it can only go so far.”
Joanna is keen to point out that an experienced line manager is also important – ideally, someone who has also attended some of the training sessions and is familiar with the content. She also suggests scheduling some time when ELSAs within schools can get together to connect, perhaps a fortnightly Friday lunch break before the weekend.
The Senior Mental Health Lead will also want to consider how ELSAs will fit into their setting’s vision and provision for mental health and wellbeing.
Everyone in school should be aware of the aims and objectives of the ELSA programme and how the role fits in with others such as mental health first aiders, the SENCO, the pastoral support team and the DSL.
Recognise that time will need to be allocated not just to running the sessions, but for planning, engaging with supervision, and attending meetings with the mental health team. When it comes to sacrificing lesson time, make sure you communicate this as early as possible to teachers whose lessons will be impacted.
Because trusting one-to-one relationships are at the heart of ELSA, high staff turnover can be a problem. Creating a clearer career pathway for TAs and more professional development opportunities is just one way to address this. The recently approved Level 5 Specialist TA apprenticeship provides such an opportunity.
Real Training’s Educational Psychologists have teamed up with our sister company Educational and Sporting Futures, to offer ELSA status if you choose the social and emotional wellbeing strand of the Level 5 apprenticeship. This will allow you to practise as an ELSA while gaining your Level 5 qualification and (optional) HLTA status with supervision provided for the duration of the course.
Potential loss of subject time for ELSA sessions has to be weighed up with the impact of missing activities such as choir or football (which could also benefit the pupil’s mental health). One way to address this is to get creative. “I’ve known ELSAs who get involved in cookery, music or basketball with pupils as a way to help them to connect – it’s all about following the interest of the child and building the relationship,” Joanna says.
Many ELSAs use lunch breaks to try to fit in children as waiting lists can be long. Joanna cautions against this as doing so may mean the pupil misses out on important social activities, as well as putting pressure on the ELSA.
ELSA work is bespoke, strengths-based and person-centred. Targets are individually constructed with the young person and linked to referral information. “Targets are best thought of as the smallest thing that can make the biggest difference,” says Joanna.
Individual targets could look like the following;
It’s helpful to use some kind of short check-in sheet to keep a record of progress towards targets (see two examples below).
Your school may also want to use more formal assessment methods to measure the overall success of their ELSA programme, such as the Boxhall Profile or the free Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), as well as looking at things like attendance data.
[DOWNLOAD THE TOOLS: Take a look at the ELSA Check-in: How Are Things?
and this Progress Scoring Matrix, provided by a fellow ELSA trainer with kind permission.]
Although some pupils find group sessions useful for building social confidence and skills, others do not. Qualitative feedback from a recent research study showed that some pupils felt sessions were covering old ground and didn’t always meet their individual needs, while others were uncomfortable with mixed-age sessions.
“Plan group sizes and dynamics carefully,” advises Joanna, “everything must be matched to targets”. It may seem efficient to run group sessions for improving social skills, but in reality, “having a large number of children with limited social aptitude trying to work through the sessions can be unhelpful; the same as it would be for sessions on anxiety.”
ELSAs follow a regimented timeline to avoid over-dependency. They might incorporate a visual ladder to help show children where they are in the process or a countdown to indicate when sessions are coming to an end.
It’s perfectly natural and normal that contact continues informally after a block of sessions has ended. This can be a real positive for both ELSA and pupil. It may be beneficial to build a quick informal check-in into the follow-up process a few weeks after ELSA sessions have finished, so the child knows they will have an opportunity to share their progress.
It’s important ELSAs have regular (ideally half-termly meetings) with the SENCO and other adults around the child. Session content is confidential but, with the consent of the child, targets and small wins can be shared. Some things may be relevant to record in a pupil passport so knowledge can be easily shared, or communicated to other professionals, such as those leading Nurture Groups, play therapists or art therapists.
Improving communication with parents might be another area for development. In a review by Staffordshire Educational Psychology Service, secondary school ELSAs reported that since the pandemic parents are becoming more anxious about their children’s progress and valued a closer relationship with their TA.
It’s always good to have at least two trained ELSAs in a setting but many schools also go on to expand the programme. Aside from extending the service to more young people, a team of ELSAs are also better able to support one another.
Many ELSAs benefit from deeper training on some elements of the role, for example target setting, neurodiversity, mental health, trauma-informed work, executive function and emotional regulation. Having some sort of CPD also helps the ELSA feel valued in the role.
For example, attachment and relationship building are key elements in the ELSA intervention, could your school access training about attachment to help cement these principles at a school-wide level?
[EXPLORE OUR COURSES: Attachment theory is covered in our Social and Emotional Mental Health Needs module.]
If ELSAs are willing and capable, you might want to consider running drop-in sessions and ELSA-run workshops for the rest of the school staff on topics like managing transitions.
“Obviously interventions should be carried out on an individual-by-individual basis” explains Joanna, “but if there are common issues, other ELSAs or previous ELSAs might be able to say; ‘hey this resource worked really well for a similar aged pupil, why don’t you try it?’
Joanna recommends looking at resource hubs such as the one run by ELSA network and ELSA-support or creating your own and encouraging people to leave annotated notes and observations. If there are ELSAs who are particularly confident they might like to do a short video or workshop on how to use the resource that can be used by other TAs or even parents.
If your school is part of a trust it can be helpful to bring ELSAs and pastoral support teams together to share ideas, across Primary and Secondary divisions respectively.
“The most common reason that ELSA fails is because the model gets watered down or forgotten about,” Joanna says. “Make sure systems are in place to regularly check that ELSAs are still running distinct blocks of sessions with clear targets and that they are attending regular supervision.”
ELSAs have gained increasing popularity in recent years with many studies showing TAs, parents, children and Headteachers widely reporting a positive impact.
It is important that school leaders make the most of the available resources they have to support children with social and emotional mental health needs. Without being ready to meet this need when it arises, many children avoid school completely or are not in a good place to engage in class. As Dr. James P. Comer, a child psychiatrist and Yale University professor so adeptly puts it, ‘no significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.’
The good news is that more frameworks are now in place to help guide schools in the right direction when it comes to implementing ELSA – as well as new fully funded routes to support TA career progression, including ELSA training.
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Jill Eaton - co-director at our sister company, Educational and Sporting Futures, has been awarded an MBE in recognition of her exceptional contribution to raising the profile of apprenticeships in Further Education and the skills sector.
The theme for Dyslexia Awareness Week 2024 is “What’s Your Story?” We caught up with Luke Hearne-Brown to hear more about his experience of dyslexia. Luke is a successful young filmmaker and co-founder of Imprint Films. He was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was in Year 3 and told us his story.
This event provided a valuable platform to explore current trends and expert insights in literacy and dyslexia/SpLD. We would like to express our gratitude to the speakers and panellists for their insightful presentations and engaging discussions and a huge thank you to everyone who attended and helped make this event such a success!
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