[LIFE STORIES]
Tara Colegrave A MUM, SCHOOL TEACHER AND CHILDREN’S TELEVISION PRESENTER – KIDS ARE A HUGE PART OF TARA COLEGRAVE’S WORLD. Brisbane mum Tara is a vibrant and engaging television and radio presenter, best known for her role on the popular BBC children’s channel CBeebies, aired daily in Australia on FOXTEL. Tara is passionate about education, social issues and the arts, and she shares these passions with her class in her role as a primary school teacher. Tara joins us to share an insight into family life with her husband James and 4-year-old daughter Olive and more of her busy professional life, juggling full time school teaching in Brisbane with recording for cBeebies in Sydney. Tell us about the work you do as a media presenter and as an educator. What inspired you to go into both these fields? I have been a presenter for BBC Worldwide kids channel CBeebies for seven years and a school teacher for 10 years. With my role on CBeebies I’m involved in the scriptwriting (using the Early Years Curriculum), filming little links that go between the shows, doing live performances, voice overs, some magazine editorial and, of course, meeting the kids! This year I have a grade three class that I just adore. Teaching is one of the hardest yet rewarding professions I’ve ever been involved in. I want to inspire my children to think, question, debate and solve problems on a global scale. Finding current resources to do this, while maintaining general school rigour in a class of 30 definitely keeps you on your toes! But we have a lot of fun, and I’m always trying to be as creative as possible. This is my world … making people smile and think – pretty awesome.
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JAN/FEB 2016
How did your role with cBeebies come about? Timing is everything they say. I had moved to London with big stars in my eyes and for two years I worked for Ministry of Sound radio while teaching and carried a list of agents around with me. One day I decided to email them all with a small bio and a clip from another children’s television show I did in Australia called Y?. I held my breath and only one responded. The following week we met and as luck would have it, the BBC had just sent him an email searching for an Australian children’s television presenter to host a new channel launching in Australia. What?!! Neither of us could believe it! The casting was in the next few days and they squeezed me in. I got a phone call two days later for a callback interview and I got the job. I started three weeks later at the BBC in Shepherd’s Bush. Quite mind blowing really and it all happened in one month. Serendipity, hey? How do you juggle your work as a television presenter with being a mum and a school teacher? Like every working mother, it is always a challenge, and I couldn’t do it without the incredible support of my husband and parents. There have been some tough times juggling it all – even a little zombie like teaching the day after filming. But we all get through somehow with a laugh. It’s easier now as I just film during school holidays. Fortunately, James has been studying for his Masters for the last 18 months while running his own leather craft business (www.thecutleatherworks.com) so he looks after Olive, does the kindy run, all the laundry and most of the cooking. I know … pretty awesome!
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