SEND
Mrs L Butler
Head of KS1
SENDCo
Mrs C Kent
Deputy SENDCo
Class Teacher
Mrs Butler is the person responsible for Inclusion at St Ursula’s Catholic Primary School. We are committed to inclusion and equal opportunities. We work closely with parents and other agencies in order to ensure that all pupils are able to successfully access the curriculum.
Our school population includes a wide range of different community groups and we are dedicated to ensuring that our school is a place where everyone feels welcome and where all pupils can be successful learners. Our consistently high expectations and inclusive teaching practices ensure that St Ursula’s Catholic Primary School is a place where all children can achieve highly.
Our pupils have a range of different abilities and interests, beliefs and aspirations. Our staff are experienced in teaching pupils with a wide range of abilities and trained to use a variety of different techniques and intervention programmes to ensure all children can access the curriculum fully. At St Ursula’s we want all of our pupils to succeed and thoroughly enjoy their education.
Details of how St Ursula's provides for pupils with special educational needs and abilities can be found in the policies at the end of this page.
ELSA Support
What is an ELSA?
An ELSA is an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant who work with either small groups of children or individuals to support emotional literacy development. This means understanding and implementing strategies to improve the way that they think, feel and process emotions, usually in relation to themselves.
Areas that our ELSAs can support can include:
- Recognising emotions
- Self-esteem
- Social skills
- Friendship skills
- Anger management
- Loss and bereavement
An ELSA's Role
ELSAs help children and young people learn to understand their emotions and respect the feelings of those around them. They provide the time and space for pupils to think about their personal circumstances and how they manage them.
Children are usually referred for ELSA support by their class teacher, Senior Leaders or on occasion the SENCo. Every week, our Inclusion Team meet to discuss to identify and prioritise children that may benefit from interventions such as this. The programme usually runs for 6-8 weeks (sessions lasting between 30-45 minutes once per week) so we will plan support sessions to facilitate each child in developing new skills and coping strategies which will allow them to manage social and emotional demands more effectively.
Supporting, Not Fixing
There will always be children and young people in schools facing life challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning, and some will require greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.
An ELSAs main role is to provide a child with emotional support. They aim to establish a warm rapport and provide a reflective space where children are able to share their thoughts and feelings honestly. It needs to be appreciated that change cannot necessarily be achieved rapidly and is dependent upon each individual. For children with complex or long-term needs it is unrealistic to expect ELSA intervention to resolve all their difficulties, however support will be designed to target specific aspects of a child's need.
SEND