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Hywel has been a teacher for over thirty years. His reputation has grown hugely since he stepped out of the full-time classroom.
He has found an incredible and innovative niche in the world of model teaching contributing to and advising curriculum designers and innovators from Barnsley to Brussels, from Cairo to Cleethorpes. Hywel is as at home in front of hundreds of Headteachers on the conference circuit as he is when working with EAL children on the carpets of their classrooms.
Hywel contributes to the national conversation around education at school and university level. He is an experienced teacher in Special, Primary and Secondary settings, nationally and internationally.
He is also a well-respected author, his most recent book being the acclaimed bestseller Botheredness®, that is supporting schools around the world with its emphasis on classroom and strategic creativity, enactive learning, optimism, and joy. In the pipeline are the books Bothered About Maths (with Dr Ed Southall) and Schools of Joy (editor and contributor).
Hywel has led the PGCE programme in Drama at Huddersfield University and has contributes to the Masters programme in Drama and Creative Writing at Leeds Beckett University. He also contributes to University Education programmes in Sheffield, Liverpool, Durham, and Leeds. Hywel still works with children, keeping his insight fresh, current, and useful. His work deals with curriculum liberation, warm creative practice, learner investment, leadership, literacy, teacher development, and professional imagination.
In addition to working in schools, Hywel is a regular contributor to conferences including The Next Decade, The Festival of Education, Welsh Education Festival, Northern Rocks, BrewEd, Practical Pedagogies, Community Playthings’ Day of Play, and The University of Belfast Thinking Conference.
He is in demand as a conference keynote speaker collaborating with colleagues such as Mick Waters, Karen Ardley, The Real David Cameron, Ian Gilbert, and Estelle Morris. Hywel has recently worked for Barnardo’s, The Princes Trust, the National Galleries in both London and Edinburgh, The Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield and the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds as a visiting teacher.
Hywel has attained a distinction in his master’s from Leeds Beckett University focussing on Poverty and Achievement in City Schools. Hywel contributed to BBC Bitesize acting as a content provider and script doctor during the Pandemic in 2020.
His award-winning book ‘Oops! Getting Children to Learn Accidentally’ is published by Crown House Publishing and has proved extremely popular with educators around the world and now is a feature on the reading list of many university teacher training courses. His book ‘Uncharted Territories’ is written with Dr Debra Kidd and was published in 2018. Hywel is a contributor to ‘Unfinished Business,’ the book honouring the life and work of Sir Tim Brighouse.
Hywel was invited to participate in The Oracy Commission in 2024, focusing on Drama pedagogy and storytelling. He has also contributed fiction to a prison-based literacy reading programme developed by The Shannon Trust. Hywel is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Charted College of Teaching.
Hywel’s signature concept. He argues that what makes the biggest difference in education is not just content, but how much teachers care and show they care (“botheredness”). He links this to curriculum design: how curricula are invested in (by teachers, by institutions), and how that investment transforms learning. The idea is that a curriculum shouldn’t just be a checklist (“the should”), but something alive, felt, and shaped by genuine concern for students.
Hywel encourages educators to design learning experiences that matter deeply to students – making them real, not just academic exercises – so that children invest in their own learning.
Hywel emphasises storytelling, teacher stance (how a teacher positions themselves), and imaginative pedagogy. Through stories and drama-based methods, he shows how lessons can be brought to life, making learning more engaging, personal, and effective. It’s about using the art of storytelling to create pedagogies that are not just informative but transformational.
Inspirational! I usually have around 3 action points to go away with – I have 10 for this one! One of our school development areas is ‘casual inference’. This will certainly go a long way to addressing this. Mid-way through the session I ordered the book. Feeling chuffed to bits!
Hywel was brilliant – very engaging and informative. Fantastic, funny, engaging and useful. Hywel Roberts session – engaging children without handfuls of prepared resources – keeping it simple.
