Wellbeing Services

Life can be challenging for children and young people at any time. If you're worried about your child’s sleep, mood, diet, behaviour or emotional wellbeing, we can help. At Links Primary School, we know how important it is to support the mental health and wellbeing of our children and their families. Our belief is that providing therapeutic support can remove barriers to education and learning and can have a significant impact on long term wellbeing. We offer a range of different mental health support services to meet our children and families needs:

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant

ELSAs are Emotional Literacy Support Assistants. They are specialists with a wealth of experience of working with children. Their aim is to support a child’s emotional development and remove the emotional barriers to learning. ELSAs help children to learn to understand their emotions. They can provide time and space for children to think about any issues or difficulties they might be facing and to identify strategies to support them in managing them.

ELSAs can help with:

Self Esteem
Social Skills
Managing strong feelings
Emotional regulation
Growth mindset

Our ELSA is Kirsten Slinger

JIGSAW4U

We have a Specialist Jigsaw4U Support Practitioner in school, Sharon, who is trained to work with children and their families where there are concerns about a child’s emotional well-being or behaviour. She offers weekly 1:1 sessions in school with the child and/or small group work.

Sharon can help with:

Friendships
Relationships
Social skills
Building self-esteem
Understanding neurodiversity
Anxiety

Loss and bereavement
Emotional and behavioural difficulties

Merton Education Wellbeing Services

At Links, we are part of the SWLSTG Education Wellbeing Service. They work with us to provide friendly and accessible wellbeing support, advice and programs to promote child wellbeing.

They offer free evening and lunchtime webinars for parents on a number of wellbeing related topics throughout the year. Find out more by watching this short video: https://youtu.be/dkTtD_-jPec

We have a Wellbeing Practitioner, Pauline, in school who can work with you 1:1 if your child is struggling with anxiety or any challenging behaviours. You can refer yourself but clicking on this link https://forms.office.com/e/9hA10GNKqk

Merton Early Help Support Co-ordinator

We have a Specialist Early Help Co-ordinator, Annabel, in school who is trained to work with vulnerable families where there are concerns around housing, relationships, money, training or work and benefits. She offers confidential meetings in school with any parents or carers.

If you think that you or your child may require some support from any of these services please speak to their class teacher or Kirsten Slinger the SENCo who will discuss with you the possibility of a referral.