Andria Zafirakou doesn’t do lunch. Instead, she stands in a playground at Alperton Community School in north London, where she has been an art teacher for 12 years, eating a sandwich and discouraging 1,400 pupils from doing anything nasty to each other.
I don’t do lunch for a similar reason — because in my new career as a maths teacher, I’m either on duty in another playground in east London or scrabbling to prepare for my next lesson.
So we meet on a Saturday at the Langham Hotel in central London, which she has chosen because afternoon tea is her favourite meal, and there you can have it for lunch. But when I ring to book, half of London appears to want pastries at midday and the place is full. I call the press office and explain that I’m meeting the woman who has been crowned the best teacher in the world, winning a $1m prize paid for by the philanthropist Sunny Varkey and endorsed by Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. Magically, there is a table after all.