Those Who Can, Teach

Part autobiography, part teaching masterclass, it’s a clarion call for people to value the arts in state education, as well as a powerful reminder that a teacher ready to listen can transform a young person’s life – Will Hazell * i *
A prizewinning teacher makes clear how little government understands about what goes on in schools … Those Who Can, Teach is a response to the government’s scattergun approach to education, a plea for them to take notice of the pressures teachers are increasingly placed under, and how education policy is damaging young people. [Zafirakou’s] simple, direct style often feels close to a manifesto – Lamorna Ash * Guardian *
A memoir of [Zafirakou’s] time in the classroom, told through the lives and experiences of some of her most memorable and hard-to-reach pupils … Some of her pupils have been recent arrivals to Britain; some have escaped war; many have chaotic home lives … The stories she tells, of bringing these students to life in her art lessons, are little parables of possibility. They tell of students who have unlocked trauma through their drawing, or who have spoken for the first time because they found a home in the art room – Tim Adams * Observer *
This is a teacher who went out and spent over sixty pounds of her own money to buy a uniform in Asda for a boy who had no chance of getting one from home; this is a teacher who took one boy’s clothes to the school washing machine during PE lessons so he’d have them clean and dry afterwards … You can call this good teaching; what it looks like is love … Art is, like music, the universal language, and what’s striking is how many children, who find it near impossible to communicate in any other way, can communicate through art … That’s the lesson of story after story; the most difficult children can come into their own when they learn that they are good at something, at art, and are recognised as good * Evening Standard *
Achingly humane … Searingly wise … Totally riveting … Unmissable – Michael Attenborough CBE

Andria Zafirakou was born in north-west London to Greek-Cypriot parents and attended state schools in Brent and Camden. She has worked her entire teaching career of fourteen years at Alperton Community School, where she is an art and textiles teacher and Associate Deputy Headteacher. Her willingness to go above and beyond for her students saw her win the Global Teacher Prize, dubbed the ‘Nobel of Teaching’, in March 2018. With the prize money of $1 million, Andria set up Artists in Residence, a charity that brings professional artists into disadvantaged schools across the UK. In 2019, she was appointed an MBE for her services to education. She is a Culture Leader for the World Economic Forum and a member of the Global Future Leaders Council, and has been named one of the top ten most influential people in London by the Evening Standard. She lives in London with her husband and two daughters.

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