Across the world, education systems are under growing strain. Despite unprecedented investments, reforms, and innovations, many young people report declining wellbeing, disengagement from school, and rising mental health challenges. Australia is no exception. While our schools perform well by international standards, their benefits are unevenly distributed, and too many children and adolescents are not flourishing academically, socially, or emotionally. Drawing on my current work Reinventing Australian Schools and related research, this interactive keynote argues that improving learning and mental health outcomes for children and young people requires more than refining existing practices. Doing the same things for longer or more efficiently will not deliver better results. Instead, we need the courage to rethink some of the most fundamental assumptions that shape schooling today. The presentation invites participants to engage with three simple but powerful questions: What is the purpose of schooling in a rapidly changing world? What are children and young people capable of when learning environments are built on trust, relationships, and agency? And what could schools become if engagement, wellbeing, and deeper learning were treated as core goals rather than secondary afterthoughts? By connecting education transformation with child and adolescent mental health, this keynote offers a hopeful, evidence-informed vision of schools as places that can better support learning, belonging, and wellbeing for every child, not just some.

Three Key Learnings:
1. Schools shape wellbeing as much as learning
2. Improving education requires doing things differently
3. Reinventing schools is both achievable and urgent