All the decisions we make in school – what gets taught (curriculum design), how we teach (pedagogy) and what learning we recognise and reward (assessment and certification) – should be based in beliefs about the purpose of learning. But there is currently no agreed coherent answer to the question 'What is learning at school for?' The implicit answer is built on economics: that the purpose of education is to provide 'growth' as measured by GDP. But growth, and particularly the narrower concept of GDP, are insufficient and increasingly attacked by economists themselves. We cannot continue to simply 'supply' skills and expect the economy to use them to create productive, equal societies. The challenges of inequality, resource exploitation and ill-health are not being solved in this way. A broader narrative must encompass more of what we know about what makes for healthy lives, societies and ecosystems.