Alperton Global Teacher finalist tells it like it is on the housing crisis impact on pupils

Ms Zafirakou with Alperton students (Photo: BBC)

Sourced from BBC LINK

Andria Zafirakou  an art and textiles teacher at Alperton Community School in Brent is a finalist in the Global Teachers Prize sponsored by the Varley Foundation. She has been nominated for her work with deprived pupils, working with their families at home as well as in the classroom.
She told the BBC that  some pupils at her Brent secondary school have to do their homework in the bathroom, because their housing is so overcrowded.

She said:

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. In fact 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. 

I also 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 extra-curricular activities after school because they had to take on parental responsibilities like collecting their brothers and sisters from other schools.
In response, she organised extra lessons during the day and the weekend, including giving pupils a quiet place to work.

She had learned basic phrases in the 35 languages spoken by pupils at the school and helped teachers work with other services, such as local police and mental health specialists.

Alperton downgraded after first post-academisation Ofsted inspection

Alperton Community School which received an Outstanding grade in its previous Ofsted Inspection has been downgraded to Requiring Improvement in the latest inspection, which is the first since it converted to academy status in September 2012. The full report is available HERE

The Report states the school requires improvement because:
 

·       Students’ achievement is below expectations in a number of subjects, including English.

·       Not enough teaching is good or outstanding, especially in English.

·       Teachers do not set challenging work in all subjects, particularly for the most able students.

·       Students do not do enough extended writing in all subjects.

·       Teachers’ marking does not always help students to do better. Students sometimes do not respond to teachers’ feedback and this restricts how well their work improves.

·       Teachers sometimes fail to check if students understand the work taught during lessons, which hinders their progres

·      The school’s leaders do not compare what they know about students’ progress between Years 7 to 11 with national expectations in all subjects.

·      Some subject leaders do not have the skills to improve the quality of teaching and students’ achievement quickly enough in their subjects.

·      Senior leaders do not evaluate aspects of the school’s performance, such as the impact of teaching on students’ achievement, precisely enough.

·      The sixth form requires improvement because students’ results vary too much between subjects.

 However Ofsted did identify the following strengths:

·      Weaknesses in teaching and staff under- performance are being effectively attended to by the newly appointed headteacher.

·      Students’ behaviour is good in and out of lessons. Students are safe.

·      Attendance levels are higher than average.

·      The governing body challenges the school’s leaders and holds them to account for students’ achievement.

·      Students achieve well in mathematics and science.

·      Lower ability students, and those who speak English as an additional language, achieve well.

  

•