If you would like to express an interest in ELSA training, please email LEPSTradedServices@leics.gov.uk
Educational Psychology training
Educational settings can access training from our service via their Service Level Agreement (SLA). We also offer centralised training, ELSA training and ELSA supervision training.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
As part of Service Level Agreements, Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service can offer staff training to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence of their staff teams and build the capacity of schools to support the children and young people within their settings.
We offer a range of training packages that can be tailored to each context to ensure that they reflect and meet the needs of the individual setting. Our team can also work with settings to develop bespoke training around a range of areas of need, please discuss any areas of interest with your school’s link educational psychologist.
Topics that we have previously delivered training on include:
Cognition and learning
- An introduction to supporting executive functioning skills in schools
- An introduction to supporting children who experience working memory difficulties
- Metacognition skills
- Supporting children and young people with literacy difficulties
- Precision teaching and direct instruction
- Paired reading
Social emotional mental health
- Staff resilience and wellbeing
- Supporting anxious children and young people in school
- Supporting children and young people following bereavement and loss
- Supporting children and young people with attachment-based needs
- An introduction to emotion coaching
- Supporting children and young people who experience emotionally based school absence
- Supporting children and young people who self-harm
Communication and interaction
- Using Lego to develop social skills
- An introduction to reluctant speaking and selective mutism
Centralised and CPD training
Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service run training days to support the continuing professional development (CPD) of educational staff across the academic year.
A range of topics are covered which aim to help schools to develop their inclusion and practice around supporting children and young people with a range of needs within their settings. This offer is regularly reviewed to ensure that it meets the current needs of educational settings within Leicestershire.
Previous CPD day topics have included:
- Supporting children and young people who engage in self-harming behaviours
- Supporting children and young people with cognition and learning needs using evidence-based strategies and approaches
- An introduction to supporting children and young people who experience emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA)
- Inclusion for all: Supporting pupils with complex learning needs
For further information on the current centralised training days on offer, please see the Leicestershire Traded Services website or email LEPSTradedServices@leics.gov.uk
Comments about our CPD training
I really enjoyed the training day. and I felt that it gave me a boost to my knowledge in these areas.
The trainers were very knowledgeable.
There was lots of information and great discussion with well-presented resources.
It was an enjoyable and inciteful day in which I felt I learned a lot.
Person:Anonymous schools
Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) training
Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service offer a regular programme for schools to train Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) to promote the emotional wellbeing of children and young people across primary and secondary schools as well as specialist settings.
Emotional literacy fosters the development of the school community and is a valuable part of the school curriculum. All children and young people benefit from being nurtured according to their individual needs. Just as with learning, some will need greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others.
ELSAs are trained to develop and deliver individual or small-group programmes for children with social and emotional difficulties. The work is planned around the needs of the individual child or young person.
ELSA training has been offered to teaching assistants in primary and secondary schools in various local authorities across the UK since 2007.
Independent evaluation reports show that head teachers, trained ELSAs and educational psychologists note a positive impact on the emotional and mental health of pupils in their schools, as a result of ELSA interventions.
Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service have been delivering training and supervision since 2012 (within Leicestershire). There has been consistently positive feedback from schools.
Comments about our ELSA training
- Will highly recommend this course to others! Very enjoyable and informative. Thank you.
- Inspiring and given me the confidence to support and deliver ELSA.
- I have enjoyed every single minute. I feel more confident at work, and it has opened so many professional doors. It has already become embedded in our school and is going from strength to strength. Please pass on my thanks to all of your colleagues, for all of their hard work.
- I found the training course to be really useful and very practical. I was able to leave each session feeling inspired and enthusiastic and will put activities/strategies into practice.
- The course has given me the skills, knowledge, activities and confidence to work with the children every day and in interventions. Thank you.
- Valuable information and guidance regarding self-esteem, security and the theories that form this.
- It was all well put together and useful.
- I am taking away some great ideas for how to help the friendship problems that arise at out very small school.
Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) supervision
ELSAs must receive regular supervision from Educational Psychologists in order to maintain their ELSA title and status.
Supervision is key in supporting LSAs to deliver their role effectively and ethically. It also provides opportunities to share practice, experiences and problem solve with other ELSAs.
The Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service's ELSA Supervision sessions provide ELSAs with 6 group supervision sessions across the year (half termly). The exact dates and times are agreed by each group.
Comments about our ELSA supervision
Respondents to our end of year survey in 2024 shared the following comments:
- It's really helpful to ask advice on specific pupils and situations - to the EP and to the other ELSAs in the group - to gain different ideas and perspectives.
- The in-person meetings were great as I found inspiration in the ELSA rooms at other schools - so my ELSA room looks great now! The supervision has supported me, continued my professional development and built my confidence in the ELSA role.
- The sessions are a safe space where we can discuss case loads and seek professional guidance.
- These sessions are invaluable - as the only ELSA at my school, it is lovely to speak with others and air any problems we have and share resources.
- New information that the EP was able to share with us. Specific advice offered and valuable support offered by the EP. ELSA’s sharing their experiences and offering advice was extremely valuable. Feeling listened to.
We received the following average ratings out of 10, from respondents to our end of year survey:
- How helpful did you find the EP leading and facilitating the ELSA Supervision sessions? = 9.2
- How welcoming and approachable did you find the EP leading the sessions? = 9.6
- How supported did you feel within the sessions this year? = 9.5
- Please rate your level of satisfaction regarding the opportunities you had to talk and ask questions during the sessions = 9.4
- Overall, how useful have you found the ELSA Supervision sessions during this academic year = 9.4