After winning a $1m global teaching prize, Andria Zafirakou the UK Cypriot North London teacher instead of making her own life more comfortable has instead, announced she is using the money she won in March with the Varkey Foundation global teacher prize – a kind of Nobel prize for teaching – to set up a campaigning charity to get more artists and arts organisations into Britain’s schools.
Surrounded by pupils, teachers, family and supporters including Simon Schama, Melvyn Bragg, the musician Naughty Boy and the artist Mark Wallinger, Zafirakou launched her charity, Artists in Residence, at her place of work for the past 12 years, Alperton community school in Brent, and said she wanted to bring about a classroom revolution.
“This is our time, this is the time for the arts, we are going to make a change and do something quite incredible,” she said. “I knew what I had to do, I had to start a mission, a crusade, to help fix a mess, to raise the profile of arts in our schools.”
The campaign stems from the difficulties many schools have in getting artists of any sort – whether an up-and-coming local musician or a major movie star – into schools to work with and inspire children.
Zafirakou’s charity will essentially be a broker between schools and artists. “I get schools, I know the problems they have and I know the language of schools,” she said. “I know that many artists cannot get into schools because of logistical problems.”
The project will begin as a pilot involving 30 schools in disadvantaged communities, before widening to the whole of London and then rolling out to the rest of the UK in 2019.
Many will see it as an extraordinary act of altruism given there were no obligations attached to the prize money. “If this was the lottery it would have been a different situation, but it’s not the lottery,” Zafirakou said. “This is something I won because I’m a teacher so it’s right to give it back to the profession.”
She said she felt her award recognised the importance of arts education in schools and society. “When you have kids who are not picking up arts because they do not know what the jobs are or don’t realise the value of it, that’s when alarm bells ring and you have to do something.”
Zafirakou hopes to sign up an army of artists and arts organisations who will work with schools for fixed periods, whether a day or a full academic year.
She said subjects such as art, music and drama were being squeezed out of the curriculum at a time when they had never been more important. “They’re not only essential for personal growth and self-understanding but they also teach young people to think creatively, learn to communicate effectively and build resilience. All these skills will be important for the jobs that they are likely to do when they leave school.”
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.
Andria Zafirakou was born, in London. Her mother, Anna, is Cypriot and her father Greek who is well known in the community Father Georgios Zafirakou, the priest of the Greek Orthodox church of All Saints in Camden, London. is Greek.
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.
A congratulatory video message was broadcast to the ceremony, from the British prime minister, Theresa May.