David Bott

Director, The Wellbeing Distillery

David Bott is a sought-after speaker, author and education consultant who works with government organisations and some of the world’s leading schools to help guide wellbeing vision and strategy. As an expert in applied wellbeing science, David has supported thousands of educators from hundreds of schools around the world in designing and implementing system-level approaches to wellbeing and cultural change.

David is the Co-Founder and Director of The Wellbeing Distillery, based in Melbourne, Australia. David was a founding member of the UAE Government’s Dubai Future Council for Education, is a Director on the PESA (Positive Education Schools Association) board, and has published in academic journals and industry periodicals. David’s bestselling book, 10 Things Schools Get Wrong: And How We Can Get Them Right was published in 2020.

David has led significant projects, partnering with government and non-government organisations, to embed wellbeing science in school systems in the UAE and Hong Kong.

David’s current work is informed by his five years as Associate Director at the Institute of Positive Education and his 15 years of practical teaching experience in Australia and the UK where he held senior pastoral and academic leadership positions.

Upcoming Presentations

Preventing Burnout, Promoting Wellbeing: A Four-Quadrant Framework for Sharing Responsibility for Staff Mental Health Between Educators and the Schools They Work In.

People leave with their own school’s quadrant map, one move per quadrant, and a way of talking about staff mental health that gets past the question of whose fault it is.

Are We Focusing on the Right Things? Turning Student and Staff Mental-Health Data into Decisions a Leadership Team Can Defend.

You will leave with the six steps on a single page, a worked example, and a handful of questions to ask of your next dataset before you spend a dollar on a response.

Past Presentations

Helping Young People to ‘Worry Well’

In this engaging, hands-on workshop, educators will explore the power of imagery, empathy, and authentic dialogue to address key well-being issues.

Strategic Design for Wellbeing

Delegates will gain valuable experience in strategic wellbeing design, and leave equipped to begin crafting their own whole-school wellbeing strategy

A Deeper Dive into Strategic Design for Wellbeing

This interactive workshop, led by The Wellbeing Distillery founders – David Bott and Justin Robinson – is a deeper exploration of the concepts covered in the Strategic Design for Wellbeing keynote presentation.