Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service is a member of the national ELSA Network.
Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) is a programme of staff training and supervision to support children and young people with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs. The ELSA training programme is designed to build capacity in your school to develop individual and group intervention programmes to develop the emotional literacy of children and young people.
The aim of the role is to support children and young people with their social and emotional skills, within an educational context. Teaching Assistants and other staff who support children (e.g. Learning Mentors and Family Support Advisor, etc.), who are trained as ELSA’s work with children and young people to support emotional development.
Emotional Literacy Support (ELSA) Training
The ELSA intervention was designed to build the capacity of schools to support the SEMH needs of their students from within their own resources. This is achieved by training teaching assistants to develop and deliver individualised support programmes to meet the emotional needs of children and young people in their settings. Typically, ELSA programmes last for 6 to 12 weeks, with the aim of developing trusted relationships, and supporting children to learn specific new skills and strategies. These skills include: emotional literacy and regulation; self-esteem; social skills and friendship issues; anxiety and worries; problem-solving; and more.
How will an ELSA benefit your school?
Children and young people learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are fully met. There has been consistent feedback from schools across the UK that the introduction of ELSAs has made a significant positive impact on the emotional wellbeing of children and young people and their ability to manage better at school — socially, emotionally and academically.
- An ELSA is part of your staff, the interventions can be proactive and support the emotional wellbeing of children and young people at a lower level.
- Having an ELSA in your school means that you have a member of staff who is receiving ongoing supervision from educational psychologists, to discuss and support the children they are working with within your setting.
- The ELSA programme supports ongoing staff development.
The impact of ELSA – National Research
A scoping review of the research on ELSAs (Rogers & Kelly, 2024) highlighted that there is over 10 years worth of evidence to support the intervention which has been completed with children, families, school staff, ELSAs and Educational Psychologists. There is a wide range of research that tells us ELSA is an evidence-based intervention.
Benefits to children and young people
- Increased learning engagement
- Students learn to talk about how they feel and their difficulties
- Students feel supported by being listened to and having ‘special relational time’
- They can build more positive relationships and friendships
- They develop greater self-awareness and coping strategies
Research has shown that ELSA improves young people’s emotional literacy in understanding a range of emotions and being better able to emotionally regulate, as well as their self-efficacy and having positive experiences of school (Silver, Emanuel & Jones, 2024). Children develop their skills in communicating, relational and social skills (Purcell & Kelly, 2023). In learning, ELSA can help with children’s engagement and resilience (Krause, Balckwell & Claridge, 2019) as well as increasing their focus, enabling them to participate more in class and ask for help when needed (Balampanidou, 2019).
Read more information about the ELSA project
Upcoming ELSA Training (School Age)
The Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service are excited to be able to offer ELSA training and supervision to practitioners working in Primary, Secondary and Special schools* across Warwickshire. The next courses available are launching in September 2025. Places are limited and applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.
*Staff working in Special Schools will need additional time to adapt resources and learning to the needs of children and young people in their settings.
ELSAs are usually teaching assistants or learning support assistants. They need to have high levels of empathy and also be interested in building supportive relationships with children and young people experiencing emotional difficulties.
Please complete a booking form below as soon as possible to secure a place on this course. Schools need to book a place on the course based on their locality area. Click on the course flyers below to see the training dates and venue details for your school area, with further course information and fees.
For schools in: North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth
- ELSA Training Flyer Autumn 2025 - North Warwicksire, Nuneaton and Bedworth (PDF, 236 KB)
- Book for schools in North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth
For schools in: Rugby
For schools in: Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon Districts
- ELSA Training Flyer Autumn 2025 - Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon Districts (PDF, 238 KB)
- Book for schools in Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon Districts
It is important that, once trained, ELSAs continue to access on-going supervision as part of their professional development.
Please take this into consideration before placing a booking to ensure that you are able to commit to this as a school. Ten supervision sessions are included in the initial cost of the training. Schools will then be required to purchase on-going supervision sessions, per ELSA in your setting. If you want to know more, please contact us for further information.
For any further questions or queries, please contact:
