Sue Roffey, educational psychologist and wellbeing advocate who developed the ASPIRE principles, discusses relational and justice-focused approaches to schooling. She explores agency for students and teachers. She examines safety, inclusion, mattering, and how schools restore curiosity and care. Practical school examples and the Love of Learning project illustrate cultures where connection and learning thrive.
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Wellbeing And Learning Are One System
Wellbeing and learning are inseparable and must be addressed together rather than as competing priorities.
Sue Roffey frames this with the ASPIRE principles and UNESCO's pillars learning to be and learning to live together as central to 21st-century education.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Give Students Real Agency
Give students genuine agency by involving them in decisions and classroom culture so they participate not just receive.
Use simple practices like mixing seating, student-led projects and real choices to build voice and ownership.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Make Schools Psychologically Safe For Mistakes
Prioritise safety broadly: physical, digital and psychological, and normalise mistakes as part of learning.
Use classroom cultures, restorative-style circles and co-created norms so children feel safe to take risks.
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In this episode, James and David are joined by Sue Roffey – educational psychologist, researcher, and leading voice on wellbeing, social justice, and relational approaches to education.
Sue traces her journey from working with young people facing emotional and behavioural challenges, through educational psychology and academia, to her current work developing the ASPIRE principles – a framework for reimagining education through agency, safety, positivity, inclusion, respect and equity.
The conversation explores why wellbeing and learning are not competing priorities but deeply intertwined, and why many current approaches to behaviour and school improvement miss this fundamental point.
Key themes include:
- Why focusing on problems can limit progress – and the importance of vision-led change
- The distinction between individual wellbeing and collective flourishing
- The concept of ‘mattering’ – feeling valued and adding value
- Why agency is essential for both students and teachers
- How schools can create cultures of safety where mistakes support learning
- The dangers of ‘exclusive belonging’ and the importance of inclusive communities
- Practical examples from schools restoring pupils’ love of learning
- The enduring relevance of UNESCO’s four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together
Sue also shares insights from her recent Love of Learning project, involving deep dives into schools across the UK that are successfully building cultures of connection, curiosity and care.
This episode offers both a critique of current systems and a hopeful vision of what education could become when relationships, agency and shared humanity are placed at the centre.
Links
Sue’s website - Growing Great Schools Worldwide - https://www.growinggreatschoolsworldwide.com/who-we-are/sue-roffey/
The primary school where every day starts with dancing - https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/videos/cgqe0pv8vepo
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The Rethinking Education podcast is sponsored by Crown House Publishing. It is hosted by Dr James Mannion and David Cameron, and produced by Sophie Dean.
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