At Stanley Primary School, we understand that an important feature of the school is to enable all pupils to develop emotional resilience and social skills, both through direct teaching for instance PSHE, registration time and indirectly with interaction that adult have with pupils throughout the day.  All staff are trained in using the emotion coaching approach to support pupils’ development and skills in recognising and regulating their emotions. Stanley Primary School has achieved the Attachment Aware Silver Award accreditation.

Our values education project involves teaching the children our six values throughout the year, and having a rewards system to praise those children who adhere to these values. The values are: Responsibility, Empathy, Aspiration, Contribution, Resilience and Happiness.  Throughout their time at Stanley, pupils have the opportunity to complete the ‘Stanley Value Awards’.

We use ‘Zones of Regulation’ as a whole school approach to teach children about their emotions and how to recognise and regulate them.   

ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)

An ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) is a member of Staff who is trained to support children in the development of their emotional literacy.  We currently have two members of staff who are trained ELSAs.

What is emotional literacy?

• Understanding and coping with the feelings about ourselves and others
• Developing high self-esteem and positive interactions with others
• Being emotionally literate helps children focus better on their learning

Some of the areas the ELSA may work on:

• Recognising emotions
• Self-esteem
• Social skills
• Friendship skills
• Anger management
• Loss and bereavement

How does the ELSA work?

• A regular slot during the school week of around 30 minutes
• Sessions may be on a one-off basis
• Sessions can be individual or in small groups and are tailored to the child's individual needs
• Sessions are fun and might include role play, board games, arts and crafts and stories
• They include time to talk
• A pupils’ progress will be reviewed

As a parent/carer how can you help?

• By informing the class teacher if there are any issues that may affect your child
• Please feel free to contact your child's teacher or SENDCO if you have any questions

The ELSAs in this school are Maxine O’Mara Roberts and Tara Cato. You can contact them via email here.

The SENDCOs, with the consent of the parent, may feel it is appropriate to seek additional support for pupils. This may be a referral to Mental Health Support Team (part of CAMHS) CAMHS Tier 2 or 3 (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), or an external therapeutic intervention.  The SENDCOs can advise where specialist therapeutic support can be found.