Well done to Teaching Assistant, Nicola Talbot, who has completed training to become Brooke Weston’s first certified ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)
The role of the ELSA is to provide pro-active and planned intervention for individuals or groups of children who have emotional literacy difficulties. These difficulties can include, social skills; anxiety, anger management; bereavement and low self-esteem. They help children learn to understand their emotions and respect the feelings of those around them. They can provide time and space for students to think about their personal circumstances and how they can manage them. With increased levels of emotional well-being young people are able to: access learning more readily; face new challenges more effectively; develop better coping strategies; interact more successfully with others; enjoy school and home life more and go on to lead richer and more fulfilling lives.
Nicola, who joined BWA two years ago said, ‘I wanted to offer more pastoral care to our students and after looking at courses I found the ELSA one. The course was provided by Northamptonshire Educational Psychology Service in partnership with West and North Northamptonshire Council and took me 5 months to complete. The course was fantastic, I would definitely recommend it to others. I have learnt so many new skills that will be beneficial to our students such as restorative approaches including how to help them build resilience and self-esteem and how to guide and support students with anxiety.’