Family & Child Support Worker
Mrs Tuohy (pronounced two-ee) is our Child and Family Support Worker. She is available to support children in school as well as parents who have difficulties at home. Mrs Tuohy is very passionate about bringing imagination to life and helping children grow emotionally so that they can reach for the stars and achieve their full potential.
What is a Child and Family Support Worker?
Our Child and Family Support Worker is able to provide extra support and interventions for children around their social and emotional development, as well as their wellbeing. Our Child and Family Support Worker is also able to offer support and advice to parents and families. Some examples of this might be:
- Supporting with school attendance
- Support with behaviour in and outside of school
- Bedtime routines
- Support when your child joins the school or is getting ready to leave
- Signposting to relevant agencies
- Supporting with skills and techniques to gain confidence in positive parenting
The list is endless, the golden rule is... if you need help, please just ask.
If you feel like you would like to speak with Mrs Tuohy, please or wish to pop in and discuss your child or any issues you feel you might like advice or support with, please feel free to contact Mrs Tuohy through the School Office.
Mrs Tuohy is also a trained ELSA and FEIPS practitioner.
What is ELSA?
ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. It’s really important that children are able to understand and are able to cope with their feelings so that they can focus on their learning and develop high self esteem and positive interactions with others. Areas that might be covered in an ELSA session might be things like:
- anger management,
- social skills,
- recognising and becoming aware of emotions,
- loss and bereavement,
- self-esteem and friendship skills.
Elsa sessions are around 20-30 minutes long and will be held over six to eight weeks, depending on the program set and the child’s needs. It is an adult lead program and constantly reviewed to support the child in the best way possible.
What Is FEIPS?
FEIPS stands for Framework for Enhanced Individual Pastoral Support. A FEIPS session is child led and offers a safe space where a child may wish to talk about things which may be a concern for them either in or outside of school. The session usually lasts 30 minutes and unlike ELSA, where there is a structured program, FEIPS may be a one-off session or may last a number of weeks. These sessions often involve thought through play activities or art and music therapies for children. It gives the child space to reflect and talk openly about experiences and feelings in an atmosphere of respect without judgement based on a secure and trusting working relationship. (These sessions are confidential unless there is a suspected safeguarding issue.)
The resources in this section support wellbeing for both parents and children and are well worth a look. If you feel you need to support, please look at the Parent Helpline and the Wellbeing Guide for adults for details of useful organisations, apps and websites. The documents contain ideas for activities for children like construction and bingo.
Let us know if you have any questions or concerns about your child's wellbeing and we will do our best to support you. We will be adding more resources here so please visit again to see what's new.
There are additional Wellbeing activities for children in the Extra Links and Activities to Support Learning at Home section, these can be accessed via Children in the drop down menu.