Ryan is a TA at Swallow Dell Primary and Nursery School. He is currently undertaking his Level 5 Specialist TA apprenticeship, specialising in Social and Emotional Wellbeing.

As part of his apprenticeship, Ryan is gaining his ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) status and running intervention groups for both Key Stage 2 boys, focusing on self-esteem, as well as lunchtime sessions for a cohort of girls who have struggled with making friends. He is also working towards his HLTA qualification, which is an optional add-on to the course.

Ryan: I'd got to that point where I wanted to progress in my role as a teaching assistant and build on the skills that I already had. I believe strongly in supporting emotional wellbeing for children, as I know it plays a huge role in a child's ability to learn. I felt I was ready to take the next step and to get a deeper understanding of emotional regulation.

Now I’m doing my HLTA course and my ELSA - I just feel like it’s really opened up so many different avenues I could go down.

Listen to Ryan explain how he was inspired to specialise in social and emotional wellbeing after his former Headteacher supported him through a difficult time.

Ryan: It's going really well. I’ve been able to use things I’ve learned in the course and we’ve already seen significant impact in terms of their self-esteem and improved attendance. 

Originally they weren’t able to verbally express themselves in terms of emotions, but using ELSA techniques like the blob tree has just helped hugely with this and with their regulation and overall self-esteem.

A lot of boys and young men in wider society feel like emotions need to be bottled up and that you can't express them. That's not the mentality I would like for children to grow up with. So they need to be able to express those emotions, but sometimes they struggle. They need to be able to realize they can rely on other people to help them.

Ryan: There's one group of girls I work with, and one child, in particular, who struggles very deeply with finding friends. However, with the work and resources that I've learned through ELSA, I’ve really been able to work with her on building friendships and she's put in the effort as well, which is fantastic to see.

When we first started out, her inner circle was essentially one person, and that wasn’t even someone who attends our school. She’s now able to name people in her circle of friends. It’s boosted her confidence massively and she’s talking to people, not only in her class but also in other year groups. We’ve seen her interacting with more of her peers both in class and during breaktimes.

Ryan explains more about the impact of the intervention below

Ryan: Absolutely. It’s practical, it is supportive. You work directly with obviously your school, your students, and learn how to work well with TAs and teachers and are able just to further those skills that you pick up. Honestly, it is such a fantastic course. I felt like you’d genuinely be missing out if you didn’t take part.

Overall, I feel like I've changed as a person being on this course. It's allowed me to be better in my work and more confident, and the resources have made me feel like I can improve drastically.

Ryan: The support from the tutors has been absolutely phenomenal. There's never been a negative experience - they're so kind, supportive, caring. 

They always make that extra step just to check in with you to see how you're getting on. If you say you're struggling with an assignment or you don't quite understand, they will always take that extra time. I'm very, very, fortunate to have such caring mentors and tutors.

Being former teachers themselves, they have that deep understanding of what goes on in a school, they know what we are going through and how busy we are!

Ryan: I feel like having more male role models in school generally is so important - especially for young children. Some children, especially boys, will just open up to you more when you are doing one-to-ones. They may have come from homes where they don't have that male role model, so building that healthy relationship and expectation for boys is really important.

Being a TA is just a phenomenal job - it’s the best job I’ve ever had, but I do think we need more men to do it!