Creativity protects children in the UK’s deprived areas | Andria Zafirakou | Global Teacher Prize

Andria teaches at Alperton Community School, a secondary school academy in the inner city borough of Brent. It’s no easy task. Brent is one of the most ethnically diverse places in the country and 130 languages are spoken in its schools. Pupils come from some of the poorest families in Britain, many sharing one house with five other families and others exposed to gang violence in the London borough with the third highest murder rate in the UK. Children arrive at the school with limited skills and already feel isolated from staff and each other, making engaging with them all the more difficult and all the more vital.
The odds were stacked against her succeeding, but Andria defied them. Working as an art and textiles teacher and as a member of the senior leadership team tasked with earning the trust of her pupils and their families to better understand the complex lives they’ve come from, she redesigned the curriculum across all subjects from scratch while carefully working alongside other teachers so that it resonates with her pupils. She helped a music teacher launch a Somali school choir and she created alternative timetables to allow girls-only sports that would not offend some of the more conservative communities, leading the girls’ cricket team to win the McKenzie Cup.
Learning the basics of many of the 35 languages represented in Alperton’s pupil population, including Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Nigerian and Ghanaian, Andria has been able to reach out to her once marginalised students to earn their trust and, crucially, establish relationships with their parents, many of whom do not speak English. Andria has gone against the grain, taking the time to understand her pupils’ lives beyond school by visiting their homes, riding with them on the bus and standing at the school gates with police officers to welcome pupils as they arrive at the start of the school day.
Thanks to her efforts, Alperton is now in the top 1 to 5% of the country in terms of qualifications and accreditations. This as a colossal achievement given how low the students’ starting points were and how rapidly they progressed during their five to seven years at the school - a point recognised by the national inspection team.
Introducing real life situations in maths classes helped Alperton’s maths department win the TES 2017 maths team of the year. In her own art classes, Andria has introduced partnerships with the Coulthard Institute and the Japanese Koo Stark Project ‘Kintsugi’, as well as working with an ‘Artist in Residence’ (Armando Alemdar) to creatively redesign the art curriculum in order to promote inspiration and help pupils confront and cope with the responsibilities of their complex home circumstances. As a result, Alperton has been awarded specialist school status in visual arts.
By getting her pupils to open up about their home lives, she found that some were being forced to play truant to cook meals in the allocated time slot they were permitted to use their shared home kitchen. Others could not participate in extracurricular activities after school because they had to collect their brothers and sisters from other schools. Some had to do their homework in their bathroom because it was the only quiet place in their crowded homes. Learning this allowed Andria to organise additional provision within the school day and at weekends to give pupils booster lessons, give them access to computers and a quiet place to do homework, as well as time to participate in extracurricular activities. One of her greatest innovations was to bring local police officers, mental health workers and teachers to the school table to discuss pupils from a 360 degree viewpoint, enabling everyone involved in their lives to work together to help them succeed.
Andria says the thing she is most proud of is when her students go on to university, take art and design courses, gaining employment in industry, or setting up their own businesses. The odds were never in their favour, but with Andria in their corner, they have gone on to achieve great things and so has the school. Andria’s determination to move beyond an identikit school curriculum has seen Alperton awarded the Institute of Education’s Professional Development Platinum Mark, an honour fewer than 10 British schools have ever achieved.
Andria brings artists into schools-----
Schools/ Artists/ Supporters: To register to be a part of Artists in Residence and for more info, please visit the website. www.artistsinr...
The programme aims to increase pupil wellbeing and outcomes in schools by providing learners with a more rounded curriculum that promotes arts education. In doing so, we hope to raise pupil aspirations for employment in creative industries, increase pupil life opportunities and satisfaction, prepare pupils for the jobs of the future, and create increased public awareness and engagement in arts education.

[@deensthatgamer755]

Well , she does deserve it, i was her student, for a couple of years, everything she says or they say about her , is 1000% fact

[@syncies]

She of course deserves.She is my favourite teacher I have right now

[@chandreshboss883]

deensthatgamer she did deserve

[@rutvikjentilal4921]

That,s my teacher of textiles at alperton community school

[@syncies]

ROBLOX ADVENTURE are u in year 7

[@trxp_raised2003]

Same

[@jonahwilliams4966]

It's amazing that a teacher like her is in our country. Wish there were more teachers like that.

[@wickramaarachchi2170]

Alperton Community School students are lucky to have such kind of extraordinary teacher....

[@Zgall4]

Congrats Andria! You are inspiring teachers all around the globe! Greetings from Greece!

[@Thenormalyoutubertipsandtricks]

It's a shame her mother could not portay the same behaviours, as she is now in court for manipulation of a 95 year old woman

[@ivivarda3401]

Bravo Andria! You make all of us Greeks and Cypriots very proud!!!

[@yg-3087]

Well done Ms Zafirakou you are the best! You deserved it hope you win the 1m dollars btw I was in the video. She’s my favorite teacher.

[@markwinterbottom3634]

This is amazing! Well done Andria!

[@gmortimer20031]

The gift of Theory of Mind is the greatest of all. Probably the person with the best true manners (as opposed to social etiquette, a feeble substitute) you are ever likely to meet. And what a wonderful way to use this gift! xxxxxx

[@chandreshboss883]

Yes miss Zafirakou ur are the bast teacher in the world

[@copsdial999]

AMAZING STORY!!!!!!!!!!!! Just so you guys know compassion and love will always win no matter how many warmongers and weapon lords we have in this world.

[@aqeelaallahyari]

I didn't expect a report about a teacher would make me so emotional and tear up, happy tears though

[@ProfRodrigo]

Parabéns Professora Andria Zafirakou, você é um belo exemplo de superação.

[@philjamprimate]

Man, you're a total powerhouse! It's such a shame that your amazing empathy and energy is what is required to make a city school safe and it's students prosper. That should just be the norm. Let's hope that engagement from people like you help our society to be better for everyone. These kids are extremely lucky to have a teacher like this. Nice one sister!

[@infjlogic]

She sure is an inspiration to the world!!

[@canthony4243]

May God bless her and make her name great.

[@serkanlunkaya1896]

You deserve more than a congratulations Ma'am, but that's all I can give as a colleague. Congratulations! :) Keep up the good work and keep shining like a diamond and enlightening the darkness. Thank you.

[@rossmcgill465]

Congratulations Andria - lovely to meet you and cannot wait to visit Alperton.

[@futureinnovation9078]

prepare to be dissapointed

[@Itsher068]

@@futureinnovation9078 𝕨𝕙𝕪 😟

[@maurourbinarivera5182]

Its really perfect report @GlobalTeacherPrize, and very inspiration for me, @TeachAndria thanks. The box class its my favorite part. Saludos Hellos from MX. Please subtitles in spanish please.

[@rajubendre]

Brilliant! Totally inspiring teacher. Hearty Congratulations to Andria!

[@nadia1994ization]

One of the worst schools in Brent.. there is a drug gang amongst the students, majority of children are from disadvantaged families with so much behavioral issues... i have constantly cried to Mr James and Miss kugunathan about the problems in my family and they were never addressed the school never cared

[@jini8361]

You are my best teacher

[@amymacdonald2879]

Who the hell would give this a thumbs down? Congrats to a great teacher.

[@marinkopetkovic1750]

Great job Andria!

[@dreidfoil1235]

MA TEACHER!!! 👍👍👍

[@sweetbayby9030]

Je te tire mon chapeau andria ...... goood job

[@Vegaspool]

Wow good job and respect

[@user-hs3yk2yc4w]

U make us greeks so prouddd

[@mariostheophilou5426]

Congrats Andria !!!

[@Ainawi]

Congratulations Madam, greetings from Dubai :)

[@user-rc5re8rr8v]

Bravo Andria

[@randomgamer7795]

What about upper site (year 10, 11 and sixth form).

[@h7llal]

knacks school ngl

[@Joe-u8w]

Love u mam

[@a.p2427]

Lot of Indian children in UK...!

[@trxp_raised2003]

I used to go to that school the whole area is infested with them. Most of them illegal immigrants with no respect for others

[@itzcrytec4329]

2:30 Wallah I’m so ded ‘chicken shop’ Uno who dis is

[@deboramartinsramosfaria1121]

👏👏👏👏❤❤❤❤

[@asliworld6826]

Alperton co

[@ak..7290]

Hii miss

[@inaasali9126]

Hana and khalid uno 😂😂 and abdirahman 😂😂😂😂😂

[@shayshay3357]

Inaas Ali true

[@inaasali9126]

Mr Z I don’t go to Alperton I just know them from primary so idk anything about the rumor

[@FullNietzsche]

It's okay to be white, although it would be a challenge being one of the few whites in that school.

[@trxp_raised2003]

How? I went there for 4 years and everyone gets treated equally. Infact I never saw a white kid on his own all colours got along well

[@syncies]

chicken shop lol

[@Tony-1971]

Where are the white people ???

[@nachjani4087]

It's racially diverse

[@nachjani4087]

I go there

[@futureinnovation9078]

There is like 2 British-white people per year

[@Itsher068]

@@futureinnovation9078 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕝𝕠𝕥𝕤

[@trxp_raised2003]

I used to go there only had 2 or 3 white friends. And most of the white kids there are from Poland or Romania

[@CodTrickshoterz]

Wafflers I swear, why you guys lying for im dead,

[@660cyp]

nah shes a g still

[@michelegambini]

And the winner is... Andria Zafirakou! This amazing human being should be all over the news for a long time, at last some excellent news in a world focused on negativity and destruction, war and poverty and yes, the point of arts is to bring out the best in us for the betterment of the human race on our beautiful planet.