A music teacher who helped turn around a once-failing primary school in Bradford with a radical programme of music and creative education is one of three teachers from England shortlisted for a $1m global prize.
Jimmy Rotheram, of Feversham primary academy, is one of 50 teachers from around the world on the shortlist for the Varkey Foundation “best teacher” prize, selected out of more than 10,000 nominations from 179 countries. The winner will be announced next March.
His nomination for the high-profile award comes as concerns increase that music is being squeezed out of the national curriculum in England. Rotheram has gone in the opposite direction, providing his pupils with up to seven hours of music tuition a week. His work is based on the Kodály method, which is nurturing rather than critical and helps children to learn through singing and playing musical games.
The impact has been profound. As the music content increased at Feversham, its results improved and the school, which is situated in one of the most deprived areas of Bradford, went from being in special measures to the top 10% nationally for pupil progress in reading, writing and maths.
Rotheram, whose pioneering work was featured in the Guardian last year, was delighted to be shortlisted. “It’s a tremendous honour,” he said. “What I’m most happy about is that music is being recognised as a globally important subject. Music is often a subject that is swept under the carpet.”
Andrew Moffat, an assistant headteacher from a primary school in Birmingham who developed an education programme to teach children about equality and tolerance, is also shortlisted for the prize.
Moffat, who works at Parkfield community school, developed his No Outsiders policy – which has since been published as a handbook – to teach inclusiveness and promote tolerance of diversity. It grew out of his own experience of being forced to leave his previous school after a backlash over his sexuality.
To extend his work beyond the school gates, Moffat provides parent-child workshops and runs an after-school club called Parkfield Ambassadors, which offers children at his school – 99% of whom are Muslim – the opportunity to meet others of different religions, races and cultures. His programme is now being trialled at schools in three different cities.
The third UK teacher on the shortlist is Emma Russo, a physics and science teacher at South Hampstead high, a private girls’ school in north London, who has worked to break down the barriers which prevent girls from pursuing a career in science.
Appalled to discover that only 9% of engineers in the UK are female and disappointed at the low uptake of physics A-level among girls, Russo set out to inspire her students to pursue science, even setting up Skype calls with Cern scientists to bolster her students’ interest and confidence. She also initiated Girls in Physics, a termly event for female students to meet and listen to the experiences of female researchers and professionals in physics or engineering.
Sunny Varkey, the founder of the Varkey education foundation and the Global Teacher prize, said: “Congratulations to Emma, Andrew and Jimmy for reaching the final 50. I hope their stories inspire those looking to enter the teaching profession and highlights the incredible work teachers do all over the world every day.”
Last year’s winner, Andria Zafirakou, an arts and textiles teacher from Alperton community school in Brent, north-west London, was the first UK teacher to win the award since its inception five years ago. The year before, the Canadian teacher Maggie MacDonnell won the prize for her work with Indigenous students in the remote and isolated village of Salluit in north Quebec.