“We’re always trying to make kids understand,” says 30-year-old physics teacher Faraz Khan, “but we’re not really trying to understand them.” Khan is the kind of teacher you don’t easily forget. Ten minutes into a conversation with him, and you can tell there’s a mutual understanding between him and his pupils. “I’m not trying to fake who I am or trying to fake levelling with them, because they will clock on to that very, very quickly. I just genuinely want to know about them,” he says.
Khan, who teaches at Grey Court school in Twickenham, south-west London, says: “I come from London zone six. I went to school in this outer area of greater London, so I know about a lot of the challenges that the students face. For me, teaching is about creating a vibe in the classroom.” This sounds all well and good, but Khan’s not teaching creative writing, or music, or health and relationships – but physics.
Physics teacher (and breakdancer) Faraz Khan
Luckily, he has a secret weapon. It’s not just that he can relate to the pupils he teaches through lived experience, or that he sounds and looks like them – he also happens to be one of the UK’s most outstanding breakdancers.
Combining a full-time teaching job with pro-level competition, he has travelled the world competing against the best of the best. Indeed, only last year he took second place in the world championships held in Belgium, and still nurtures an ambition to seize the top spot one day.
“To have that world title in my hands is something I’ve strived for over many years. I tell the kids that I am going to be world champion one day. When I achieve that, I’ll deliver an assembly, and say: ‘Look, I said I was going to do it, here it is.’ Breaking has given me the opportunity to think about a bigger picture – this idea of being the best at what it is you do. Hopefully that’s what my pupils will learn from me.”
Khan doesn’t generally bring up breakdancing in class, but at the start of one school year, a year 10 class was showing particular distaste for his subject. “There was a bit of uproar [with students saying]: ‘Physics is the worst subject!’ This had never happened to me before, I don’t know why there was so much emotion in the class,” he says. Spontaneously, Khan proceeded to demonstrate a freeze, a breakdancing move where you hold an intensive balancing position.
See Faraz Khan in action in this short documentary from Channel 4, which is working in partnership with Guardian Labs
“Basically you just catch a shape. It seems like a very awkward position but looks pretty cool. So then everyone went quiet. And I was there talking while in that freeze position. I said: ‘This is down to physics – mass, centre of gravity, all of it. This is 100% physics.’ I got down and asked: ‘Was that cool, yes or no?’ They’ve been totally on board ever since then.”
Meanwhile, some 60 miles away in Sittingbourne, Kent, a rather different sort of vibe emanates from the classrooms of husband and wife teaching duo, Seshnie and Donovan Naidoo. The couple, who moved to the UK from South Africa in 2014, both teach chemistry, biology and physics at The Sittingbourne school. They don’t give breakdancing demonstrations but they do practise one freeze with their students. Not the gravity defying, acrobatic kind, but a pause all the same. A freeze of the mind.
Seshnie and Donovan Naidoo
“If students come into lessons after PE, usually they’re all hyper and full of energy,” says Donovan. To help them transition from football to photosynthesis, Seshnie introduced what she calls “alpha mode” – a simple breathing exercise known as box breathing, which she gets students to do for two minutes. “Just breathe in, hold, and breathe out,” she instructs.
“You can actually see the energy levels [slowly settle], and then they’re on this frequency where they’re more open and receptive to knowledge,” adds Donovan.
This technique is backed up by science. The human brain emanates electrical activity – our brainwaves. When in a heightened state of activity, say if you are exercising or debating, you produce beta waves. In a more relaxed state, alpha waves are produced, hence the name of the calming exercise.
Science teachers Seshnie and Donovan Naidoo instil a sense of calm in their students
“The students found it so amazing that they were telling the other teachers,” says Seshnie, who, spurred on by her students’ enthusiasm, created a video to show other teachers the technique. Most exciting of all, their students have adopted this mindful practice as their own, and take it in turns to lead “alpha mode” sessions themselves.
While the Naidoos’ pupils channel inner calm before tackling their lessons, Lucy Holdcroft’s pupils in Stoke-on-Trent would, in normal times, be filing into their science lab. The room, called the phizz lab, is kitted out with lab benches and a life-size human skeleton. Quotes from famous scientists decorate the walls. So far it sounds like a fairly typical science classroom, except this lab is for primary school children.
Lucy Holdcroft
Holdcroft, 25, who teaches at Moorpark junior school, says: “One of our main focuses is ensuring that the children are engaged in practical science and not just writing out experiments,” she says. Linking science to future careers is also something the teachers emphasise; recently, a pilot and a podiatrist came to chat to the pupils.
Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, the focus on practical experimentation remains. “We’ll do a science lesson over Zoom, a bit of a practical demonstration. And then the children go off and have a go themselves,” says Holdcroft.
Holdcroft’s science room – the phizz lab – features a life-size skeleton
As England went into the first lockdown last year, the children were sent home with packs of instructions and materials for experiments, such as constructing balloon rockets. “It was really good because it meant the parents were involved. When the children came back in September they were all talking about it.”
Although separated by many miles, these three teachers are united in their passion for inspiring a love of the sciences. With Holdcroft’s youthful enthusiasm, Khan’s authentic vibes and the Naidoos’ modern mindset, they are reshaping the way science is taught to a new generation of pupils.
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