Why We Need ELSAs in Educational Communities

10 years of evidence based ELSA research shows that children, young people, educational communities and families have benefitted from the support provided by ELSAs during the last decade. At this time, we are acutely aware of some of the difficulties and adversities that children and young people face and may continue to face during this pandemic. The skills that ELSAs bring are to support children and young people with overcoming life's challenges, to support their wellbeing, to provide relational care, and to help children and young people to develop the skills they need that promote emotional, social, and psychological growth and resilience.

Why Choose Summit?

Summit Psychology Services took the lead, investing in, and introducing ELSA Training and Supervision to Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in 2018. The ELSA Network training that Summit Psychology Services provides is quality assured by the national ELSA Network, so you can be certain that not only will you have highly experienced trainers and qualified supervisors, but that training and supervision is of the highest possible national standards. The lead trainer, Dr Dawn Bradley, is also a member of the national ELSA Network steering group and is the regional contact for advising and guiding all other ELSA Network training providers in the West Midlands and the North West.

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ELSA Course Details

ELSA training is a 6 day nationally accredited course that teaches and supports teaching assistants in developing the emotional literacy and overall resiliency of children and young people. Teachers with available time to successfully hold the ELSA role in schools have also completed training and become accredited.
 

ELSAs are trained to transfer their knowledge and skills to plan and deliver bespoke and individualised programmes of support for children and young people in their school or setting. A programme of support usually lasts for one half term but can extend to a term.

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All training days and supervision sessions are delivered by specialist Educational Psychologists. There are an additional two days of enhanced training in Attachment, Trauma, Relational Care in Education, and Emotion Coaching which are also certified. At a minimum, ELSAs will attend six days core training, up to a maximum of 8 days. Delivery of training is planned to allow trainee ELSAs the opportunity to apply in practice skills and knowledge acquired from each training day and is not delivered as a block of training. The core training content broadly covers the following:

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• Attachment Aware and Trauma Informed ELSAs

• ELSA and Emotional Literacy in Schools

• Building Resilience and Self-Esteem: Part 1

• Building Resilience and Self-Esteem: Part 2

• Understanding Feelings, Social, and Friendship Skills

• Story Work, Loss, and Bereavement

• Puppet Work, Active Listening, and Reflective Conversations

• Emotion Coaching  ELSAs

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Course Fees

The core ELSA training of six full training days and six sessions (12 hours) of supervision is £675.00. Additional certified training days are £85.00 for each single day booked in Attachment, Trauma, Relational Care in Education, and Emotion Coaching. The whole training programme of eight full days training and six sessions of supervision is £800.00

ELSA support is embedded systemically across educational communities and all ELSAs will need the support and commitment of their settings during and after training. Please read the following documents before registering an ELSA for training to ensure awareness of your commitments to your ELSA(s)
 

• School Commitment and School Support

• Questions to Consider for ELSA Line Managers

• ELSA Person Specification

During and After Training ELSAs will be able to:

• Carry out regular (weekly) sessions with individual pupils or small groups if this is appropriate.

• Develop individualised programmes of support that are matched specifically to the individual needs of children and young people.

• Monitor interventions using appropriate tools for evaluating the impact and efficacy of the support provided.

• Share ideas with other staff in your school community about how best to support pupils in school.

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During and After Training ELSAs will receive:

• A minimum of six days training including an information pack, resources, and access to additional complimentary resources, webinars, and online training, prepared and hosted online by Summit Psychology Services.

• During training, six sessions of mandatory ELSA supervision approximately every six weeks for a minimum of two hours in small groups with British Psychological Society registered supervisors.

• After training an ongoing commitment from educational communities to support supervision once every half term. This is a mandatory requirement to retain ELSA accreditation at a cost of £200.00 per annum.

• Peer support from the growing and thriving ELSA community in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent schools.
   

INFORMATION LEAFLET TO DOWNLOAD

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ELSA CONFERENCE AND ELSA NEWS HERE

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WHAT PEOPLE SAY

Thank you so much for the fantastic training. It has completely changed my outlook. I have learned so much, and reflect so much more on what I say and do.

Dawn is so knowledagable and I love that we stay connected after training.

(ELSA)

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All of the sessions are packed full of useful information and skills to take away. Thank you for a great course.

(ELSA)

I wanted to say thank you for this training. The skills and knowledge our ELSA now has have been invaluable in these difficult times. We are much better equippped to emotionally support our children and at a time when they most need it.

(Headteacher)

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This course was amazing.

Dawn is such an inspiration.

It has already had such a positive impact for our children.

(ELSA)

What a brilliant course!

I couldn't wait to come back every month to learn more; and I love supervision, it's so helpful to share ideas and talk

(ELSA)

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Each one of us in the ELSA community is very much valued. Our strengths are nurtured. Dawn has built the ELSA community through collaboration, encouragement, and an empathic and reassuring group of ELSAs has been formed.

(ELSA)

After a year, the impact of having a trained ELSA has been clearly evident. We were so impressed with what our ELSA has learned from the training that we are training another ELSA.

(SENDCo)

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It has had such a positive impact in our school. Everyone should have an ELSA.

(Headteacher)

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