Welcome to the EIM Global podcast, the place where we speak to experts in the education sector so we understand more about how we can develop ourselves in everything we do.

In today's episode we are joined by Dr Sue Roffey. Sue is a psychologist, academic author, activist, and speaker. She holds posts as Honorary Associate Professor at University College London and adjunct Fellow at the Western Sydney University as well as being affiliated to the wellbeing institute at Cambridge University. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Carnegie centre of excellence for mental health in schools, furthermore Sue was a Fellow of the British psychological society, a past member of the editorial board of educational and child psychology and a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of arts manufactures and commerce.

In our conversation we cover Sue's background in student well-being discussing the relationship between agency and wellbeing and why now more than ever schools need to be addressing this area. Sue explains why piecemeal approach to student well-being won't get us where we need to go as well as sharing her own aspire framework developed over many years of work in the field Sues passion and expertise for the topic of clear right the way through our discussion.

So, for all that and more let’s jump into this episode with Dr Sue Roffey

Episode timestamps:

1:50 – Sue's journey from teaching students with emotional, social and behavioural difficulties through school leadership and into academia. 

4:05 – Why schools should put wellbeing at the heart of what they do 

6:40 – The false dichotomy between wellbeing and academic focus 

9:30 – The urgent need to address the community and wellbeing crisis in schools 

11:40 – Sue’s worries about the narrowing focus of education in recent decades 

20:00 – Student agency and the risk of approaches that emphasise a ‘done to’ model of education 

24:15 – Sue’s ASPIRE principles as a pedagogy for SEL and an approach to whole school wellbeing 

27:00 – Is more agency always a good thing 

28:50 – Why a piecemeal approach to wellbeing won’t work and instead a whole-school approach is needed 

32:32 – What one thing would Sue emphasise to have the maximum impact on a school community’s wellbeing 

35:20 – Sue’s latest area of focus and her new book: “Creating The World We Want To Live In” 

38:20 – The enduring importance of teachers 

EIM Online:

www.eimglobal.com

Dr Sue Roffey:

https://twitter.com/sueroffey

www.creatingtheworldwewanttolivein.org