Andria Zafirakou - The Best Teacher in the World

Lady Empire

Andria is the 2018 Global Teacher Prize winner, or better known as “The Best Teacher in the World.” She is an Arts and Textiles teacher at Alperton Community School in northwest London, England. Learning the basics of many of the 35 languages represented in Alperton’s student population, including Hindi, Punjabi, Nigerian and Ghanaian, Andria has been able to reach out to her once marginalized 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 students’ lives beyond school by visiting their homes, riding with them on the bus, and standing at the school gates with police officers to welcome students 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. Andria will discuss her book, “Those Who Can, Teach” and the many hardships that teachers have had to overcome while being very underappreciated by society.
https://www.andriazafirakou.com/
Instagram & Twitter: @andriazaf
Andria Zafirakou Bio:
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 marginalized 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 recognized by the national inspection team.

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