Jerome Monahan

I received an e-mail from TT Education in response to an article I had written about one of my workshops in Teach Primary magazines.  It is a rare thing to receive feedback from such practical features and I was very intrigued to read about the organisation and its philosophy which seemed to chime with my ‘active approaches’.  It was early in the winter term of 2013 that I met David Maytham and watched him in action.  I was pleased to be invited to be a TT consultant delivering training on writing and grammar, and by Christmas, David had invited me to take on a fuller role at the company, integrating my already well-established repertoire of ‘active approaches’ workshops into the TT Education ‘offer’ to schools.

I am based in London but I make regular trips to the main TT office in Colchester.  This is usually to attend meetings.  My days are extremely varied, because I continue to work as a freelance journalist and media consultant alongside developing the TT Education workshop programme.

I have dedicated over twenty years of my life to teaching and young people.  It was quite a shock coming out of full-time school-based work when I decided to pursue a freelance path about 15 years ago, and so anything that takes me back into schools and gives me a chance to work with young people and their teachers is a delight.  Thanks to the workshop programme I have developed, I have the added delight in being the person who introduces children and young people to exciting and challenging works of literature and the ideas they contain.  I can’t think of anything more exciting than that, and the process usually involves me learning more about these works of art and teaching too.

I am keen runner – half-marathons now only.  I also go to the cinema and theatre a great deal – sometimes as a reviewer.  I have worked for both the Globe and the British Film Institute over the past 15 years.  I spend time regularly in South Africa as I have family there.