Teaching can, at times, be a bit of a thankless task. But not everyone's hard efforts go unnoticed.
An educator from London has become this year's winner of the prestigious Varkey Foundation Global Teacher prize in Dubai, which took place on Sunday.
Andria Zafirakou, an arts and textiles teacher from a community school in north-west London, scooped the £1 million ($1.4m) prize at the weekend for her dedication to the profession, and her efforts to be inclusive of her students' multicultural backgrounds by learning basic phrases from 35 different languages.
She received the title at a ceremony attended by the former US Vice President Al Gore, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
Prime Minister Theresa May, while not present, called the award a 'fitting tribute' for everything Zafirakou had done, during a video screened at the ceremony.
The prime minister said: 'You have shown enormous dedication and creativity in your work. Being a great teacher requires resilience, ingenuity and a generous heart.
"These are the qualities that you share with your students every day. So thank you for all you have done and continue to do."
Zafirakou, who is the only UK teacher to win the award in its four-year history, told reporters: "I was shocked. I was completely overwhelmed. I didn't realise it was me."
She added that teachers in the UK 'work extremely hard', saying: "This award goes out to all of us."
Asked what she will do with the prize money, she said: "I'm going to be patient, I'm going to reflect, but as you know I think it would be really fantastic if I could think about how the arts could be celebrated even further within our school community."
During 12 years as Alperton Community School, Ms Zafirakou has completely redesigned the curriculum to make it relevant to her students, set up female-only sports clubs for children from more conservative backgrounds, and has even spent time understanding her students' lives by visiting their families at home and catching up with them on the bus.
On reaching the top ten, she revealed the hardships faced by pupils from 'crowded homes' who were being forced to skip school in order to cook meals for their families.
She said: "Others could not participate in extracurricular activities after school because they had to take on parental responsibilities like collecting their brothers and sisters from other schools.
"Discovering all this prompted me to organise additional provision within the school day and often at weekends to help students have the opportunity to progress.
"This included giving them access to a quiet place to do their art work, as well as time to participate in extracurricular activities."
She will now work as a teacher for at least five more years while her prize money is paid to her in instalments and serve as an ambassador to the Varkey Foundation.
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