Emotional Literacy Support Assistant

We are looking for an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) to join our Beulah Hill campus.

The purpose of your role will be:

- To support individuals and groups of students to enable access to learning, contributing to the development and maintenance of a purposeful, nurturing learning environment.
- To support children with emotional and behavioral difficulties to enable them to effectively access the curriculum.
- To support and encourage a learning environment throughout the school which allows children to acquire and develop emotional literacy skills.
- To support children to make progress in learning through the delivery of specific interventions.

**About Us**

Harris academy South Norwood, Beulah Hill campus is an extremely popular 11-19 academy that has been judged Outstanding by OFSTED since 2010. We deliver a broad and challenging curriculum to all our students in a calm and well-ordered environment. We havehigh expectations of all members of the school community. This is reflected in our consistently high student performance at GCSE, progression to post 16 study at our sixth form and then on to some of the best universities in the country.

The Beulah Hill Campus is a wonderful place to learn and teach. We have a very hardworking team of teachers and support staff; they provide a caring and welcoming atmosphere for our students. The Campus site is a huge site with close to 8 acres of schoolbuildings, sports halls, gymnasium, tennis courts and large playing fields / athletic track thus providing excellent facilities for our students.

**Main Areas of Responsibility**

Your main responsibilities will include:

- To work with individual children or in groups of children who are experiencing difficulties with emotional literacy or other aspects of school or home life as identified by the class teacher or any other significant adult.
- To support children with emotional and behavioral difficulties to enable them to effectively access the curriculum.
- To support and encourage a learning environment throughout the school which allows children to acquire and develop emotional literacy skills.
- To develop knowledge of a range of learning and behavioral support needs and to plan, devise and implement appropriate programmes to help develop children’s emotional literacy skills and emotional well-being.
- To implement and review intervention programmes/targets designed by Educational Psychologist, teachers and/or other professionals as required.
- To create, develop and produce resources for use with intervention programmes, as appropriate and may include social skills, emotional skills, friendship, bereavement and anger management groups
- To ensure that all records are kept up to date, distributed and files in accordance with the school’s procedures, and that appropriate levels of confidentiality are maintained.
- To liaise, and maintain good working relationships with other staff, parents, outside agencies etc. required.
- To support children to make progress in learning through the delivery of specific interventions.
- To provide detailed and regular feedback to SENCO on students’ achievement, progress and needs.
- To attend to the students’ personal needs where required, and implement related personal programmes, including social, health, physical, hygiene, first aid and welfare matters.
- To support with behaviour management, using appropriate strategies in line with academy policy.
- To contribute to creating a purposeful and supportive learning environment.
- Undertake structured and agreed learning activities/teaching programmes as appropriate, adjusting activities to ensure achievement of learning goals.
- To liaise with the class teacher and SENCO in the identification and targeting of children with emotional and behavioral problems.
- To liaise with teachers in the preparation of individual EHCP’s/PLP’s and subsequent reviews (emotional and behavioral) for identified children.
- To attend relevant in-service training as appropriate.
- To lead TA training where necessary.

**Qualifications & Experience**
- Qualifications to degree level or equivalent
- ELSA Qualification (or be a TA willing to complete this)
- Basic knowledge of SEND and learning barriers
- Some knowledge of strategies in working with young people with challenging behaviours
- Knowledge of some of the social issues facing students from disadvantaged backgrounds
- Awareness of Health and Safety issues in the workplace.
- Experience of working directly with young people in an education or training environment, supporting the learning of students.
- Experience of establishing and maintaining positive working relationships with a range of stakeholders, at all levels.
- Experience of managing and being responsible for own workload.

**Safeguarding Notice**

**Equal Opportunities**

As a provider of employment and education, we value the diversity of our staff and students, and all our staff are equally valued and respected. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment for ourstudents and staff.