Looking after your family’s wellbeing is really important. Families all need some help from time to time due to life changes or events.

As a parent/carer you can take small steps to help your child’s wellbeing as well as your own/ You can do this by starting with the basics.

Consider one area at a time, think about your home environment and what small changes you can make together as a family.

Using the BACK to BASICS approach can empower you to take control of the 5 Ways of Wellbeing.

Think of it as building the foundations of a house; making sure your family has all the basics in place. For example, eating healthily, sleeping, exercising, good routines and looking after ourselves and our children’s wellbeing. If foundations are not in place there is a risk of cracks appearing.

Take Notice

GIVE

ACTIVE

KEEP LEARNING

CONNECT

What is ELSA ?

ELSAs are warm, kind and caring people who want to make children and young people feel happy in school and to reach their potential socially, emotionally and academically. They understand the barriers to learning that some children and young people might have and can help them with this. They can support the children and young person’s emotional development and help them cope with life’s challenges. ELSAs will also help children and young people find solutions to their problems.

An ELSA is not there to fix problems but to help the child find their own solutions and offer that important support to a child or young person. Relationships are key in helping children and young people to feel safe and nurtured. ELSA is about creating a reflective space for the child or young person.

Scope of practice

It is important that ELSAs work within their scope of practice and only cover things they are trained to cover. Any concerns out of their scope of practice will be discussed with their Educational Psychologist and potentially referred on to outside agencies. ELSAs support children to understand their feelings and find strategies that work for them.

What areas does an ELSA help with?

• Loss and bereavement

• Emotional Literacy

• Self-esteem

• Social Skills

• Friendship issues

• Relationships

• Managing strong feelings

• Anxiety and worries

• Bullying

• Conflict

• Emotional Regulation

• Growth Mindset

• Social and therapeutic stories

• Problem solving

Where do sessions take place?

Ideally, the Pumpkin room, but sometimes, other quiet school spaces are used for ELSA intervention.

How are children or young people referred for ELSA?

• Class teacher referral

• Senco referral

• Parent referral

• Child referral

• Outside agency referral

How long should an ELSA Intervention last?

ELSA intervention should be a short-term focus intervention with clear aims. Usually half a term to a full term in length.

An ELSA in a school is an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. ELSAs are trained and regularly supervised by the Educational Psychologists who trained them. Regular supervision meetings are essential to good practice and allow the ELSA to bring up any problems with a group of other ELSAs along with the Educational Psychologist.

ELSA – Short term focused intervention

The vast majority of ELSA sessions are proactive. This means there are targets for the ELSA to achieve with the child or young person. This makes the intervention measurable so the school knows the child or young person has made progress and the intervention has been successful. The targets are known as SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited. This might be a one-to-one session or a group session. The usual intervention is 6 sessions (half a term), but it could be a little longer if necessary. It is important the child or young person doesn’t become too attached and reliant on the ELSA because the aim for most children or young people is to cope independently with any challenges that they face.

Welcome back, for the last half term before summer. As we are nearing the end of the school year, it’s a good time to think about how the year has gone and all the brilliant things you have achieved. We have put a sheet here which you can download and print which asks you to think about:

• What are you proud of?
• What skills and qualities do you have?
• What have you got better at?

We would love to hear how you get on, so if you do complete the sheet then feel free to bring it down to the Pumpkin Room so share with us.

Mrs Byrne and Mrs Chapman

Click here to download and print: How I shine

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme this year is anxiety.

It’s normal to feel worried at times, we all experience anxiety and of course children will too. But sometimes worries can get quite big and heavy, and so it’s good to have ways to manage them.

Within school, we encourage children to talk about their worries and to share how they are feeling as sometimes it’s enough just to offload and be listened to. Here are some other useful tools you could use at home if your children are feeling worried:

Breathing techniques for children

Doodle your worries away

Rainbow worries

What are your worries and how can you cope

Hi everyone

We are in March, and the start of the year has flown by! Spring is just around the corner now, the evenings are getting lighter and better weather will be on its way soon. There are lots of good things to look forward to which can help make us all feel happy. It’s also good to think about yourself and the good things within you as they can also make you feel really happy.

So, why not try making a positivity jar. It’s really easy to just… simply find a jar or pot that you can use an decorate it however you wish. Be as creative as possible and make it look fun and pretty! This is going to be a really special thing, so take your time and make it look great.

Once it’s made you can use it however you wish. You could:

• Write down lots of positive things about yourself on slips of paper and pull one out each day to look at and share with someone at home
• Ask your family to write down lots of good things about you on slips of paper and put them in the jar. You can then pull one out each day to read and it will help to brighten your day!
• Write down your favourite part of each day and then put that in the jar to keep as a memory. It will be fun to look back on and each month you could pull one out and share it with someone at home to remember that special moment
• Write down lots of positive notes so that when you’re feeling a bit sad or worried you can pull one out to remind help you to feel better
• Come up with your own ideas for what to put in your jar 

We would love to hear about how you get on, or to see what you have made 🙂

Have fun being creative and sharing your positivity!

Mrs Byrne and Mrs Chapman

February 6^th to 12^th is Children’s Mental Health Week which is a special week organised by the Place2Be charity. This year the theme is ‘Let’s Connect’ and is all about how you can make meaningful connections with people.

Take a look here for more information about Children’s Mental Health Week:

Children’s Mental Health Week (childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk)

So, to mark this special week, our Wellbeing Challenge for February is all about connections. We have attached two worksheets for you to choose from and print out and complete. Or you can come down to the Pumpkin room to collect a printed copy.

 Lets connect acrostic poem

Lets connect wordsearch

We would love to see your completed sheets, so please bring them down to the Pumpkin Room to share with us by Monday 27th February and we will then enter you into this month’s wellbeing prize draw.

Thank you to everyone who entered January’s wellbeing challenge… we struggled to pick a single winner, so the WINNERS are… Caitlin (6P) and Isabeau (6P).

Please come to the Pumpkin Room to collect your prize. 

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed lots of time with those around you. It’s lovely to see you all back in school now and we are looking forward to lots of exciting things ahead in 2023.

At the start of a new year, it’s always good to look back and think about the year that’s just gone. What went well? What did you really enjoy? It’s also good to think ahead and think about what you could do differently, or what you might like to work on. A new year is a great time to set some goals and think about what you might like to achieve.

We have attached a worksheet that you might like to fill in. Have a think about what your hopes and wishes are for 2023.

We would love to see your completed sheets, so please bring them down to the Pumpkin Room to share with us by Monday 30th January and we will then enter you into this month’s wellbeing prize draw.

My hopes and wishes for 2023

We hope you have enjoyed your last year at school and are now looking forward to moving up to your new class.

Here are some activities to keep you busy until then!

In the diary there are 30 challenges with a diary sheet for each. This diary will help you to stay positive over the holidays in a mindful and fun way.  You can get a certificate on completion!

Click on the link..

https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/elsa-support-summer-holiday-challenge-diary-2022/

Certificate link Certificates 2022

I can be smart online. 

Here are lots of tips to help you be safe online this summer!

https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SMART-online.pdf

Memorable moments

Here’s a fun way to remember your last year at school!

Write a list of memorable moments and then draw or write your favourite one in their jar.

https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Memorable-moments.pdf

Please look through previous blogs for lots of fun activities to help you look after your wellbeing this summer.

Have fun!

Mrs Byrne and Mrs Chapman

Easter is here so enjoy the break!

Here are 30 challenges with a diary sheet for each. This diary will hopefully help you to stay positive over the Easter holidays in a mindful and fun way.  

Click the link below…

https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/elsa-support-summer-holiday-challenge-diary-2020/