Sue Roffey has written essential books for educators across the globe. The ASPIRE principles encompass foundational pillars for the promotion of learning and well-being for all children and youth. This is a user-friendly volume with many practical applications. Teachers and educational administrators around the world will benefit greatly from the wisdom in these pages. I highly recommend it to educators, parents, psychologists, counsellors, and anyone interested in flourishing and the creation of a just and vibrant society.
Professor Isaac Prilleltensky, PhD, University of Miami
As Sue Roffey articulates so intelligently, passionately and clearly, wellbeing is both complex and contextual. These books provide a comprehensive and clear framework for considering how best to grow contextual wellbeing across your whole school using her well established ASPIRE principles. A fabulous foundation for whole-school development, and a much-needed voice for wellbeing equity.
Dr Helen Street, Founder of Contextual Wellbeing and Positive Schools, Honorary Fellow, The University of Western Australia
These excellent books show how to enable pupils to flourish in school now and how we can help all to thrive in future. The ASPIRE principles build social justice. I highly recommend them.
Sir Anthony Seldon, Co-chair of the Times Education Commission Report: Bringing out the Best
Wellbeing is not merely a means to an end. It is the end goal we all aspire to, and how ultimately, we measure the success of our lives. Dr Sue Roffey’s ASPIRE books provide a pathway for schools to build wellbeing for all – students, educators, and community. Dr Roffey illustrates how the ASPIRE principles can underpin the values of a school, inform and drive policy, practice and structure, and guide teacher-student relationships. This work is pro-active, comprehensive and universal and aims at nothing less than a revitalisation of education.
Dr Denise Quinlan: Director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience
I have no hesitation in recommending these books to all educators – wellbeing and learning must be a focus for us all if we are to build successful schools and more importantly successful families of the future. Sue’s ASPIRE framework provides us with a clear structure to frame our thinking.
Maureen McKenna: Former Executive Director of Education, City of Glasgow
For true educational change we need to know to what we aspire. Drawing from both her rich experience and the best educational science, Roffey points us toward educational contexts in which students want to learn. She points us beyond a narrow focus on cognitive achievement, to the kind of schools where human development, intellectual, social, and emotional, is the goal. Beyond piecemeal reform she describes cultures of education where both students and teachers can flourish. These are books that can truly lead the way of positive school change.
Richard M. Ryan: Professor | Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney and Distinguished Professor | College of Education Ewha Womans University, South Korea
There has been some talk post pandemic of doing things differently in schools and not just returning to default settings in search of a more rewarding and compelling school vision for educators and students. These inspiring and thoughtful books provide the narrative for this work. They pose the question: does the education system as we know it meet the needs of learners and educators or is there another way? A way which provides the skills that employers want, the happiness that parents seek for their children and a way of teaching and learning which helps to retain and recruit those who work in our schools. Joining the conversation and planning for a better future for our schools starts with Sue’s books. which cover key aspects of what an education system fit for the 21st century must include.
Andy Mellor: National Wellbeing Director for Schools Advisory Service, National Association of Head Teachers National President 2018/19, Strategic Lead for Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in schools, UK.
Sue’s aspirations and vision for a truly inclusive, critical, and hopeful approach to education is one that is sorely needed. Sue’s work guides schools, educators, and psychologists to see wellbeing as something to be actively pursued and cultivated, rather than just the absence of mental ill-health. The realisation of the ASPIRE principles would mark a systems change in how we ‘do’ education.
Dr Dan O’Hare, Educational Psychologist, Senior Lecturer at University of Bristol and founder of edpsy.org.uk