The authors take the themes of well-being, happiness and flourishing and apply them to the lives of those who work in schools. Drawing on educational professionals' words and experience, they show there is a deeply held view that teaching is an immensely worthwhile activity, but that as uncritical, indiscriminate use of business models in education conflicts with pedagogic principles. They suggest how thinking about learning, leadership and management can be realigned to fit with teachers' sense of value and professional judgement, and how a technical rational view of accountability and performativity might be changed to make school a place where all concerned can flourish within a humane system on trust and responsibility.