Meet the winner of the Global Teacher Prize
2018
Imagine a school where children and their parents face the horrors
of gang violence right outside the gates.
Imagine a school where 35 languages are spoken.
Imagine a school where students share their homes with five other
families.
What would
you
do in such a school?
How about working with the police to prevent gangs recruiting
pupils as they wait for the bus? How about teaching yourself the
basics of numerous languages, just to communicate with your pupils
and their parents? How about redesigning an entire curriculum to
resonate with an ethnically diverse student body?
Our Global Teacher Prize Winner 2018
Andria Zafirakou has done all of this – and so much more – at
Alperton Community College.
The school is in Brent, an inner city area of London. It’s one of
the UK’s most ethnically diverse – and disadvantaged –
places.
The winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2018 faced a daunting task
when she joined the school. The challenges of poverty, gang
violence and engaging young people from such a diverse range of
backgrounds were all too clear.
But throughout the school and on the streets she is driving
change.
Speaking without words
Andria is an art and textiles teacher.
“They’re powerful subjects,” she says. “They help the students
unlock all of their language barriers.”
Art transcends language, she believes. Through art, she’s able to
develop pupils’ skills, improve their confidence and help them
achieve something. As part of this, she introduced an ‘artist in
residence’, who helps the students on a technical level, but also
offers an outlet for what can be challenging and difficult home
circumstances.
Thanks to her work, Alperton has been awarded ‘specialist school’
status in visual arts.
Heading off the gangs
Her own classroom is just the beginning, though. After school,
walkie-talkie in hand, she’s outside the school gates, getting
pupils safely onto local buses and heading off recruiters for the
local gangs.
Gang violence is a major problem in the local area. She works
closely with the police to identify potential issues and
recruiters.
“You can’t let that come through the school gates,” she says. “We
have to protect our pupils – at all costs.”
Giving
pupils a fighting chance
She has also set up
a boxing club for the times she can’t be there.
Pupils learn to
protect themselves and have a safe place to let off steam. It’s
great exercise, and stops them from being out on the streets in the
evening.
She also reworked
the school’s timetable to allow girls-only sport, important in a
conservative community. The result? A cup-winning girls’ cricket
team.
The next
generation of teachers
But, she knows she
can’t do it all alone. She leads the professional development
initiative for the school, building the talent of other teachers
for the future.
It’s not just skills
development with her fellow teachers, though. Her endless and
unwavering commitment inspires others to work just as
hard:
“You grab onto that
enthusiasm she has,” says colleague Nicola Hazley, “and it drives
you forward.”
It makes a
difference
The results? Well,
they speak for themselves.
Alperton is in the
top 5% in England and Wales for improving pupils’
achievement
It’s one of fewer
than 10 schools to win the Institute of Education’s Professional
Development Platinum Mark.
The maths department
won TES 2017 maths team of the year, thanks in part to real-life
situations she helped introduce to the classroom.
Staff are constantly
learning, adapting and becoming better educators.
But, most
importantly, students are driven to succeed, to achieve, and to
forge a better life for themselves.
“My calling in life
is to make sure that every single child reaches their full
potential.
That I unlock
that.
That I make sure,
whatever it is that they need to achieve, I make it happen for
them.”