Sunday 6th May was a
beautiful and sunny day; a perfect day to get involved with the KWT (Keep
Wembley Tidy) team who invited us to help make Wembley a better place. ACS
students worked with the KWT team to help keep our area clean by participating
in the local litter picking campaign.
At 9:50AM the students and the KWT
members met at the front of the Ealing Road library. Students were accompanied
by Ms. Paoletti and the KWT members. They walked all the way up to the One Tree
Hill park picking up all the litter in their path, trying to make Alperton a
better place. In pairs they were given a garbage bag and a garbage stick to
collect as much as they could. After that they all met up in front of the
library with their garbage bags full of discarded rubbish, which would have
otherwise had a negative impact on the environment and the people who live in
the local area.
Students worked hard in the heat for a
whole hour. It was also a great way for the students to meet new people and the
KWT members and they all had a great time.
Thank you to the KWT team for holding
such a great event which will have a positive impact on the environment and community.
It also gave the students at Alperton Community School a chance to experience
something new.
If you want to be a part of future
events, then please join the Eco Committee Club held by Ms. Paoletti.
Just a little of your time could make a huge difference to your local
surroundings and show that you really do love where you live.
It was announced
today that our very own teacher, Ms. Zafirakou, has been named the winner of
the Global Teacher Prize 2018. This ceremony gave recognition to our teacher,
who inspires hope, ignites imagination and instils a love of learning within us
as students.
The school
opened its doors, on a Sunday, to staff and students to watch the awards streamed
live. They were over the moon when the name of one their favourite teachers was
announced. Staff were emotional and students were jumping in
excitement to celebrate the teacher who has always brought out the best in both
staff and students alike. This inspiring award has also helped to spread
awareness about why creativity in the curriculum is so important and how it can break
all boundaries and divisions.
Trever Noah,
South African comedian and presenter of the American The Daily Show, hosted the event. To announce this year’s winner, a
special video message was shown as 4,000 young people came together to create a
human hash tag symbol for the announcement, breaking the world record.
The moment that
found Ms. Zafirakou in shock!
Footage from the Varkey Foundation
His Highness
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Vice President and Prime Minister of the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai) was
accompanied by Sunny Varkey to present Ms. Zafirakou with the award.
Ms. Zafirakou’s
speech:
Footage from the Varkey Foundation
Ms. Zafirakou,
and all teachers, deserve the red carpet treatment that this star studded spectacular
awards ceremony had. The trophy was hand delivered by Formula 1 driver Lewis
Hamilton who arrived by police convoy, and award winning Jennifer Hudson closed
the show with a musical performance. Before singing a song called Remember the Music she said “no matter
what you do always remember why you do it because we can only be great when
we’re passionate about what we do.” Something all of our teachers can resonate
with and passion is what they clearly have.
Also in
attendance were Olympic winner Sir Mo Farrah, ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, retired footballer Jermaine Jenas, ex Vice-President Al Gore, comedian Rory Bremner and actresses Priyanka Chopra and Charlize Theron. Some of them even managed to have a selfie taken with Ms. Zafirakou!
As
if that was not enough, a
noteworthy video message was broadcast on behalf of UK Prime Minister Theresa
May. She expressed how being “a great teacher requires resilience, ingenuity,
and a generous heart”, and described the award as a “fitting tribute” to all
the work Ms. Zafirakou has done, and will continue doing.
All students and
staff are looking forward to Ms. Zafirakou’s return from Dubai so that we can
congratulate her personally for her dedication and hard work, but also to hear
about her amazing experiences so far and the continuous journey that this award
will bring.
We look forward
to seeing the arts and other creative subjects at our school continue to flourish.
BBC School Report 2018 was a great success at Alperton Community School. On Thursday 15th March, eleven students across year 9 and 10 worked throughout the day to create news reports on a variety of topics. I am very proud of how our young journalists worked to meet the deadlines I had set them. As a group they discussed the news stories they wanted to report on and then independently researched their topics.
It's not too late to join the ACS Journalism Club! After today's success we aim to keep on reporting throughout the school year.
Our very own Ms.
Andria Zafirakou, Art and Textiles teacher of Alperton Community School, has
been shortlisted to the top 10 for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2018
out of an incredible 30,000 nominations.
All ten
finalists will be invited to Dubai for the awards ceremony at the Global
Education and Skills Forum on Sunday 18 March, where the winner will be
announced live on stage.
Ms. Zafirakou has
worked at our school since 2005, which is longer than some of the students in year
7 and 8 have been born! Her dedication and commitment has seen her work her way
up from a newly qualified teacher all the way to SLT (senior leadership team).
Ms. Zafirakou is a very enthusiastic, engaging and approachable teacher. This
makes her a great person to pass on her skills and talents in teaching to all
the other staff at the school by leading on professional development, teaching
and curriculum innovation. The passion she has for teaching is also evident in
so many of our teachers at Alperton.
Every Monday,
students are lucky to finish school a littler earlier at 2.30pm. This allows them
time to attend after school clubs such as boxing, film club, rowing, cricket
and also to go to the library so they have a quiet space to do their homework.
Whilst students get to engage in extra curricular activities, of which the
school has many, teachers have the time to learn and develop as professionals,
which is led by Ms. Zafirakou.
Ms. Zafirakou is
a member of the Art department, led by Mr. Alemdar who is also an accomplished
artist. With him and the other art teachers, they have redesigned the art
curriculum to help promote inspiration. The arts and creative subjects are so important
as they reach some of our students in a way that other subjects do not,
sometimes due to accessibility and language barriers. Every year the arts are
celebrated at the end of the summer term with an amazing Art and Design Exhibition
that showcases the many talents of the students at our school. The event is
very popular and professionally curated making students feel privileged to have
their work displayed for so many people to see.
The Varkey Foundation was
initially set up to help to improve the quality and standards of education for
underprivileged children across the globe. They work to ensure that every child
has the right to be taught by exceptional teachers and to strengthen the
profession of teaching. Set up by the foundation and now in its fourth year, The
Global Teacher Prize acknowledges the outstanding contribution of a phenomenal
teacher by awarding them with US $1 million (approximately £717,430). It serves
to celebrate and recognise the efforts and importance of educators - not only
for their school and their students but also for their surrounding communities.
We, at Alperton
Community School, are immensely proud of Ms. Zafirakou for all her efforts and
contributions to the school. The school will be open to staff and students to
watch the event streamed live.
We wish Ms. Zafirakou all
the best. She is already our top teacher!
In year 9 media
studies we have been learning how to create our own music video. This has been a
class project as all of the students in the class take part in the video. We
were put into four groups of 6 and the song was divided equally between us.
The song our
class chose was God’s Plan by Drake,
a really popular video at the moment. The storyline our class came up with was
about homelessness and how people without a home still need to be shown love,
care and support.
The music
video was filmed in our classroom by using a green screen and an app called Touch
Cast Studio. This made the process easier as it saves time editing as the app
automatically removes the green screen for you.
During this
project we have been learning many skills: group work, organisation, planning, working
to a deadline, filming and acting. We also made pre-production documents such
as a storyboard and shot list to help us on the shoot day.We had to think of the
flow of the visuals and use a variety of camera shots and angles to create
certain connotations.
The extra
thing I did in my own time was getting a shirt and creating a costume. I
cut it up to make it look like it was worn for a long time and put makeup on it
to make it look dirty. Before I got on set I also put on makeup under my eyes
to show the eye bags because of lack of sleep.
The music
video was a great experience for us because we all got to take part and work as
a team, which helped with our communication skills. Next week we are going to
learn about editing so we can put the filming from all 4 groups together.
Donald Trump,
president of the USA, wants to allow teachers to have guns in schools. This decision
was made due to a gunman shooting 17 people in a school in American. Trump said
arming teachers could put an end to shooting quickly. This action was discussed
on the 15 February 2018.
This established
a rapid reaction worldwide as nations contemplated the outcome of this idea.
Form tutor of 10N, Mr Amir, stated: “Even 5 year olds know to eliminate the
problem, not add to it.”
This attack,
that killed 17, has gotten everyone on edge as they debate the correct
solution. Many teenagers, from the Washington DC suburbs, rallied outside at
the time - some voicing support for arming teachers. However, Mark Barden -
whose son Daniel was killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Connecticut - said more guns was not the answer. This has caused
chaos, especially in America as they riot in favour of or against this
misconception of more is better.
Trump declared
the reason for this was that if a teacher who was adept at firearms was
present, they could very well end the attack very quickly. However, 72% of
teachers said they would not want to carry a gun even if the law allowed.
Overall, many
oppose this course of action worldwide. What do you think? How would you feel
if there were guns in your school?
