SUMMER CHALLENGE

ELSA

All children should be nurtured in accordance with their individual needs.

Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA’s) are trained to plan and deliver programs of support to pupils in school. Just as with learning, some will require greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others. The ELSA initiative was developed to provide that additional level of attention and care that will enable children with temporary or long-term emotional needs to feel better about themselves and about their time in school. It's aim is to equip school support staff to identify needs and intervene effectively to help create change for the pupils with whom they work.

Children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are addressed. We know that the ability to learn is adversely affected by emotional and psychological difficulties. When emotional and cognitive energy is focused on these things, there is a reduced capacity to concentrate on academic development and learning new skills. There will always be children and young people in our schools facing life challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning. If we give them a chance to think about these difficulties within the context of a safe and supportive relationship, we can help them increase their resilience. By encouraging better recognition and self-management of emotional states, they will become better able to access the educational opportunities presented to them.

We are pleased to announce that at LAB we have now five members of staff Elsa trained who will deliver targeted Elsa sessions to students we believe could benefit from it.

SEND Green paper

Right support, right place, right time.

In March 2022, the Government issued their latest consult paper around SEND. Many suggestions are based around strengthening the advice given from the SEND Code of Practice. As part of the consult process, everyone has been asked to give their thoughts and opinions. Here at LAB, we decided to go one step further and arranged for a small group of our SEND students to meet with representatives from the local authority and government feedback officials. Our students were able to comment on many aspects of the green paper including: collaboration, communication and consultation. The feedback from the local authority demonstrated that: “The young people were amazing - so articulate and had such great ideas and contributions!” We were so proud of the students involved and hope the government listens to their comments! We will also be looking at other ways our students can work with the local authority to have their voice’s heard.

If you are interested in finding out more about the green paper and giving your views, please do look at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/send-review-right-support-right-place-right-time