RPS School Council Members
MEET OUR RPS 2021 SCHOOL COUNCIL
Tarryn Holland
Hi! I am Tarryn Holland, the school council president at Ripponlea Primary. I have 2 daughters at RPS, Dia in grade 3 and Odessa in Foundation.
I am the Coordinator at a local community run kindergarten and really value being involved and connected to community. This is one of the many reasons we opted to send our girls to RPS and also one of the reasons I chose to sit on school council.
My role on school council is to chair meetings, look over finances (with a massive amount of help from Natalie, Rachel and Lianne!) and I also sit on the Ripper Families sub committee. This year I am also hoping to continue to strengthen our connection with Mishel and the team at Ripponlea Kindergarten as I see them as such a valuable part of our community.
I’m really looking forward to being able to have a few more social events again at RPS soon and getting to know more people in our wonderful community.
Simone Kaplan
I’m Simóne Kaplan, Mila in Year 1 and Lexi is Year 3’s Mum. I am currently Vice President on the School Council. I love the RPS school community and particularly the warmth and creative minds we bring. I’m always happy for you to reach out if there’s anything you’d like to discuss about the school. I organised the last Art Attack, a big community art event we run every two years and hope that Covid behaves so we can have another brilliant event this year. I work for Headspace as a Counsellor and I am passionate about supporting young people and their well-being.
Robyn Cooney
Hi, My name is Robyn Cooney and this is my second year of being on School Council. I also run the Ripper Families committee, and we are responsible for fundraising and community events. We meet around once every 6 weeks and currently have 13 members.
Obviously, it’s been a tricky time to organise events, but we were thrilled to have at least snuck in the Trivia Night and Mothers day stall this term. We have an exciting event calendar this year and welcome any new parents, so please feel free to get in touch if you’d like to get involved. (Email me at ripperfamilies@gmail.com)
I am Mum to Archie P (Grade 5), Harriet (Grade 3) and Billy in Grade 2 and have been a part of this fabulous school community for 6 years. We had a new addition to our family last year, with our beautiful Golden Retriever (Megs), who is providing us with much love and comfort during these strange times.
I have spent my career in the area of social work and am particularly passionate in the area of disability. I am also the legal guardian to a young man with Down Syndrome, who stays with us regularly and is a big part of our family.
My partner (James) is a carpenter and for the past 10 months, he has been building us our family home. From demolition to first stumps, and now almost about to move in. Its been so exciting for our kids to be a part of this and we can’t wait to start the next chapter there.
Jaclyn Paltos
I'm Jac, mum of Lenny N (Grade 5) and May N (Grade 2). I'm also a school council member and head up the publicity & marketing committee at RPS. I run our social media, help Meagan out with website content, organise advertising and write copy for lots of bits n pieces at the school. I'm also the annoying person reminding you to submit/buy the school cookbook! By day, I'm a freelance copywriter. I run my own business, Tumbleword (shameless plug), and specialise in all things property/real estate and website copy. I love food (cooking it, eating it and reading about it) and am partial to a good book and movie. Currently got Ishiguro's latest, Klara and the sun, on my bedside table. When we aren't in the middle of a global pandemic, we love to travel. Before the world fell apart, we had a month in Vietnam, which was incredible. These days, we are happy exploring Victoria in our panicked Covid purchase, Sadie the campervan. My husband is from Bright, so that's our favourite place to go and catch up with friends.
Lee Wallace
Hello, I'm Lee! I am super pleased to be part of the finance committee at RPS. I have been in Finance for over a decade now within the events industry. As a side hustle I am a systems software developer for Salesforce platforms and enjoy tinkering with some app building. My absolute favourite coffee is code black and with 2 young children you’ll see me drinking it regularly. I enjoy the beach in summer, family walks, movies and dining out. I’m terrible with names but love meeting new people so if I haven’t met you yet hopefully, we’ll meet throughout the year!
Bridget Hast
Hi! I’m Bridget, mum of Lily in grade 4 and Tex in grade 1.
I'm a school council member and I represent the parent-run Green Team
at RPS :-) The Green Team consists of 10 amazing, caring, dedicated Green Warrior mums and dads who have a vested interest in making our school more sustainable. We genuinely care and hope to make our school (and the world) a better place for our children and our grandchildren. We have lots of hopes and dreams, but to name a few… one of our biggest goals is to become a Resource Smart School. Watch this space! We’d also love to reduce our school waste and have completely Nude Food lunch boxes to help with this. This will also be achieved by composting our organic food scraps. Lots of exciting things to come!
I love getting involved in our school community. I’m also in the school parents band The Ripoffs and I love anything creative - music, drawing, decorating, painting.
My day job is Project Management in bespoke printing (fancy books, business cards, apparel.. just about anything really!), which I really enjoy!