If every student could plan for their obstacles instead of being surprised by them, how different would their progress look by summer? This simple but powerful question sits at the heart of WOOP, a cognitive science-based method for transforming wishful thinking into practical action. It’s not about positive thinking alone, it’s about mentally rehearsing reality.

Failure carries a strange weight in education. It is the word students dread, the mark teachers try to mitigate, and the outcome parents hope never to see. Yet behavioural science suggests that how we respond to failure might matter more than whether we experience it. In fact, failure, when reframed, can be one of the most powerful teachers of all.