November Update from the ENSA Advice Team
November has been another busy month for ENSA Advice, with term well underway and lots of projects and staff training aiming to continue to develop our service, alongside our main focus of providing advice direct to students. Some of the key issues impacting students this month have included settling in to university, financial difficulties, academic misconduct and issues with housing. We are also aware of students beginning assessments and needing to use the Fit to Sit processes to make the University aware of any personal or health issues impacting their exams and assessments, within the crucial time window around their assessments.
The team are also looking ahead to the end of the calendar year and welcoming another new cohort of students in January. This includes working towards new online content aimed at helping new students get settled in to both Edinburgh and the university. We will also be in attendance at the Welcome (Back) Fair at Sighthill in January- stop by and say hello!
Training and Development
Our newest advisers Hannah and Moray attended Scottish Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) Training, both completing the qualification and learning more about providing initial support and signposting to anyone experiencing concerns about their Mental Health.
The whole team have also attended training designed to qualify more members of the team to make referrals to the food bank, enabling students experiencing hardship to access additional support when they need it most.
Hannah also attended training delivered by the National Autistic Society designed to increased understanding of autism and how best to support students. Moray and Diane fed back to the team on a session designed to inform about coercive control. Marianne attended training by Y-Gam, to help prevent gaming and gambling harms.
Events and Key Dates
November has kicked off with the first support sessions of this academic year, beginning with the Boardgame Café for Commuting students at Merchiston on the 12th November. In this session we provided tea, coffee and the chance to play some boardgames for students who commute to university, so that they can find out more about our Advice service and let us know what areas they feel need increased support for students like them. Some of the feedback we gathered at the event and through an online survey was then passed onto the wider ENSA team to explore how we can continue to support students. If you have any suggestions for how ENSA can improve your experience as a commuting student, let us know at ensa@napier.ac.uk
Keep an eye out for the International Students' Festive Support Lunch at Craiglockhart, 12-2pm on the 3rd December 2025!
The team also got stuck in supporting ENSA events for the whole community, including the tree lighting festivals across campuses. We will also get to share in our team Christmas meal with the rest of ENSA on the 17th December, providing a much appreciated opportunity to get ENSA staff from all campuses together in one place to celebrate everyone's hard work throughout the year.
ENSA Advice Staff Campus Rotation
At the start of December, the advisers begun their next rotation across campuses. This means that from the start of the December the advisers at each campus will be
- Merchiston - Marianne and Diane
- Sighthill - Hannah
- Craiglockhart - Moray
These three-month rotations enable the staff to share their expertise with a different group of students in-person and also varies the days on which staff are available for in-person appointments at each site. You can continue to book direct with all advisers for MS Teams and Telephone appointments.
Support over the Winter Break
Edinburgh Napier Student's Association will be closed for the Winter Break from Tuesday 23rd December to Sunday 4th January. During this time, staff will not be available for support during usual working hours.
Edinburgh Napier University will be closed: 24 December 2025 – 4 January 2026, with some services and campus opening hours changing from the 15th December onwards.
If you experience a crisis or emergency over this period some alternate sources of support, including wellbeing support, are available here: Emergency & out of hours wellbeing support including Togetherall.
There are also some great independent sources of advice and information on key issues including:
If you are expecting to be on your own over the break, perhaps staying in a flat after your housemates have gone home for the break, and needing to be around to work and study on your own, here are some events that can help keep you busy and engaged round the festive period:
If you're feeling low around this time of year, or worried about the break in studies why not reach out to the Wellbeing Support and Inclusion before the university closure period? Or book in with ENSA Advice to talk about what we can do to help.
Need Advice or Reassurance?
I hope that you have a wonderful break and festive period, we’ll be back next month with the first updates from the ENSA Advice team in 2026. In the meantime, remember that we’re here to offer confidential, non-judgmental advice and reassurance on anything related to your welfare, wellbeing, or studies.
If you’d like to speak with an adviser, just click below to book in:
Book an ENSA Advice Appointment