Andria Zafirakou | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Occupation | Teacher |
| Awards | Global Teacher Prize |
Andria Zafirakou is British teacher and the winner of the 2018 Global Teacher Prize. She is an Arts and Textiles teacher at Alperton Community School in northwest London, England . [1] [2] [3] [4]
Ms Zafirakou was born in north-west London to Greek-Cypriot parents and state-educated in Brent and Camden. She has worked her entire teaching career of 12 years at Alperton Community School and was promoted to Deputy Head of Art within a year of her arrival. She is now Associate Deputy Headteacher leading on staff professional development. She is married to a fitness instructor and has two daughters. [4]
Alperton Community School is a coeducational secondary school situated in the northwest of London with a student intake that reflects a variety of backgrounds. There are about 130 languages spoken in the London Borough of Brent and Ms Zafirakou has taught herself the basic phrases used by children in about 35 of them - including Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil - in an effort to build links with her pupils and their families. [1]
“By getting pupils to open up about their home lives, I discovered that many of my students come from crowded homes where multiple families share a single property.” Ms Zafirakou said.
“It’s often so crowded and noisy I’ve had students tell me they have to do their homework in the bathroom, just to grab a few moments alone so they can concentrate.”
“What is amazing is that whatever issues they are having at home, whatever is missing from their life or causing them pain, our school is theirs.” [1]
Zafirakou organised extra lessons during the day and the weekend, including giving pupils a quiet place to work.
“(Teaching) it’s all about building relationships. Instead of worrying about teaching the curriculum or making sure that you’ve got a strict classroom environment, build your relationships first. Get your kids on board, connect with them, find out what it is that they’re interested in. Build the relationship, build that trust. And then everything else can happen.”
When a child comes into a big frightening secondary school and the teacher greets them in their own language the child is won over, and the parents are won over too and will come into school when requested. [4]
Ms Zafirakou started with art, seeing it as a language-free method of communication. She would introduce children to the art of their own culture before relating it to the white western art movements prescribed in the National Curriculum. She was aware about the levels of deprivation suffered by her pupils, with multiple families living in one house running a rota on when they may use the kitchen or bathroom. She created space for children to work after school and introduced classes on wellbeing and yoga. The curriculum was altered to make many subjects more applied rather than theoretical. [4]
Alperton is an area of north west London, England, within the London Borough of Brent. It forms the southern part of the town of Wembley and is 7.5 miles (12 km) west north-west of Charing Cross, on the border with the London Borough of Ealing. It includes a handful of high-rise and many mid-rise buildings as well as streets of low-rise houses with gardens. It adjoins the Grand Union Canal's Paddington Arm, which is fed by the Brent Reservoir.
A hidden curriculum is a set of lessons "which are learned but not openly intended" to be taught in school such as the norms, values, and beliefs conveyed in both the classroom and social environment.
The National Curriculum for England was first introduced by the Education Reform Act 1988. At the time of its introduction the legislation applied to both England and Wales. However, education later became a devolved matter for the Welsh government. The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.
The School of Philosophy and Economic Science (SPES), also operating under the names the School of Philosophy and the School of Practical Philosophy and legally named the School of Economic Science (SES), is a worldwide organisation based in London. It offers non-academic courses for adults, ranging from an introductory series called Practical Philosophy to more advanced classes. Its teachings are principally influenced by Advaita Vedanta, an orthodox philosophical system of Hinduism. It has a guru, Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati, who used the title Shankaracharya until 2017. The organisation has been the subject of controversy, especially historical child abuse that it confirmed was criminal. It has a dress code and advocates a conservative lifestyle, with traditional gender roles and sexual mores. It has been described as a cult, sect or new religious movement.
Hagley Catholic High School is a coeducational school for ages 11–18 situated in the village of Hagley, Worcestershire, England. Currently a member of the Catholic Emmaus trust of schools, it was founded by the Catholic community in Worcestershire. The school holds specialist academy status, and was awarded a Grade 1 (Outstanding) in the 2011 Ofsted report. The patron saint is Catholic martyr Saint Nicholas Owen, and the school is divided into six houses named after saints: Anselm, Bede, Chad, Gregory, Kenelm, and Wulstan.
The Swaminarayan School was a private Hindu school, the first in Europe. It was located in Neasden, London opposite the Swaminarayan Mandir, Hindu temple.
Gwernyfed High School is a old manor house turned into a high school in the village of Three Cocks, Brecon, Powys, Wales. The school is an English-medium school educating students between 11 and 19 years old from a mainly rural catchment area.
Alperton Community School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status. It has a specialism in maths, computing and arts and it is located in the Alperton area of the London Borough of Brent, England.
The term emotional literacy has often been used in parallel to, and sometimes interchangeably with, the term emotional intelligence. However, there are important differences between the two. Emotional literacy was noted as part of a project advocating humanistic education in the early 1970s.
Katharine Moana Birbalsingh is a British teacher and education reform advocate who is the founder and head teacher of Michaela Community School, a free school established in 2014 in Wembley Park, London. Politically, she identifies as a small-c conservative.
The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germany, but after the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, she began to see that the school had no future in Germany. She quietly found a new home for the school and received permission from the parents of her pupils, most of whom were Jewish, to bring them to safety in England. The new school was called New Herrlingen School, but came to be known as Bunce Court. The school closed in 1948. Alumni, who sometimes stayed on at the school even after finishing, were devoted to the school and organized reunions for 55 years. They have referred to its "immense effect" on their lives, as "Shangri-La" and to being there as "walking on holy ground".
Harris Girls' Academy Bromley, originally Cator Park School for Girls, is a secondary school in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley, England, for girls between the ages of 11 and 18, with boys joining in Sixth Form. In 2011, the school joined a federation of academies in South London called the Harris Federation, named after the Lord Harris of Peckham who is sponsoring them.
The Trojan Horse scandal, also known as "Operation Trojan Horse" or the Trojan Horse affair, is a conspiracy theory that posits a plot to introduce an "Islamist" or "Salafist" ethos into several schools in Birmingham, England. The name, based on the Greek legend, comes from an anonymous letter sent to Birmingham City Council in late 2013, alleged to be from Birmingham "Islamists" detailing how to wrest control of a school, and speculating about expanding the scheme to other cities. The letter was leaked to the press in March 2014. Around a month later, Birmingham City Council revealed that following the letter release it had received hundreds of allegations of plots similar to those described in the letter, some claims dating back over 20 years. The letter has been characterised as "incomplete, unsigned and unaddressed", but led to two investigations commissioned by the Department of Education and Birmingham City Council, the Clarke and Kershaw Reports, respectively. The reports did not both endorse the idea of "a plot", but points to "behaviour indicative of a concerted attempt to change schools".
Elly Barnes MBE FCCT is the founder and chief executive of the charity Educate & Celebrate. Barnes was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2016 for her contribution to education, equality and diversity.
Nancie Atwell is an American educator who in 2015 became the first recipient of the Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million award presented by the Varkey Foundation to "one innovative and caring teacher who has made an inspirational impact on their students and their community".
The Global Teacher Prize is an annual US $1 million award by the Varkey Foundation to a teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. Nominations of teachers who meet specific criteria are open to the worldwide public, and teachers can also nominate themselves. The judging is done by the Global Teacher Prize Academy, consisting of head teachers, education experts, commentators, journalists, public officials, tech entrepreneurs, company directors, and scientists from around the world.
Peter Mokaya Tabichi is a Kenyan science teacher and Franciscan friar who teaches at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani, Nakuru County. He is the winner of the 2019 Global Teacher Prize. Tabichi was listed as one of the top 100 most influential Africans by New African in 2019.
Maggie MacDonnell is a Canadian educator and development practitioner who became the third recipient of the teaching prize award Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million award from Varkey Foundation. The prize was presented by the prime minister and vice president of the UAE, and the ruler of Emirate of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Maggie is teaching students at Salluit village, where temperature often drops as low as −13 °C to −25 °C in winter.
Happiness Curriculum is an educational program for children studying in nursery to grade eight in schools run by the Government of Delhi since July 2018. The objective is to improve the mental well-being of pupils, and it teaches mindfulness, social-emotional learning, critical thinking, problem solving, and relationship building. Its purpose is to build emotional awareness, to support decision making with that emotional awareness, to equip pupils with the necessary skills and environment to become purpose-driven, and explore a nuanced idea of happiness. The introduction of the curriculum into government schools of Delhi has been called a reformative step towards school education in India.
Keishia Thorpe is an American teacher. She won the Global Teacher Prize in 2021 for redesigning the 12th grade English curriculum to make it more relevant to immigrants and refugees.