Preston Manor School will be disappointed that maths teacher Colin Hegarty narrowly missed out on the £1m Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize. Commiserations to Colin after all his great work but the prize has gone to a very deserving winner.
Hanan Al Hroub, a teacher from Palestine, won the prize amid much public rejoicing in Palestine. Her story is inspiring.
Hanan grew up in the Palestinian
refugee camp, Bethlehem, where she was regularly exposed to acts of violence.
She went into primary education after her children were left deeply traumatised
by a shooting incident they witnessed on their way home from school.
Her
experiences in meetings and consultations to discuss her children’s behaviour,
development and academic performance in the years that followed led Hanan to
try to help others who, having grown up in similar circumstances, require
special handling at school.
We just want peace; we want our children to enjoy their childhoods in peace.
With so many troubled children
in the region, Palestinian classrooms can be tense environments. Hanan embraces
the slogan ‘No to Violence’ and uses a specialist approach she developed
herself, detailed in her book, ‘We Play and Learn’. She focuses on developing
trusting, respectful, honest and affectionate relationships with her students
and emphasises the importance of literacy.
She encourages her students to work
together, pays close attention to individual needs and rewards positive
behaviour. Her approach has led to a decline in violent behaviour in schools
where this is usually a frequent occurrence; she has inspired her colleagues to
review the way they teach, their classroom management strategies and the
sanctions they use.
Hanan has shared her perspective
at conferences, meetings and teacher training seminars. She hopes that, with
education, her people can reclaim their homeland.
- Grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp; motivated to teach by her experiences as a mother of children traumatised by a shooting incident
- Offers specialist care to pupils exposed to violence
- Focuses on providing a safe space in the classroom and pays attention to individual needs
- Has shared her approach at Ministry conferences and teacher training seminars
