Meet the New P&F Executive

Mrs Sophie Taggart – P&F President

Apr 10 2024

The P&F is excited to announce the new Executive for 2024. Below is some information on what we do and how you can become involved.

The Composition of the Executive (elected Term I 2024)

President: Sophie Taggart Deputy President: Chrissy Latis

Secretary: Lena Huda Deputy Secretary: Helen Perna

Treasurer: Perry Beebe Deputy Treasurer: Suellen Knight

Committee Members: Megan Blair, Bushra Khan, Heather Marshall

Representative to the NSW Parents Council: Justine Pirie

Principal of the School (as an ex-officio member): Dr Julie Greenhalgh

Meet your new Executive

President

Sophie studied and worked as a Mechanical Engineer for a number of years primarily in the mining, tunnelling and building industries. Now a full time Energy Artist, Sophie is passionate about mindset, healing, and the benefits of creativity and clear vision. With a desire to be a part of a thriving school community with strong parent connections, Sophie looks forward to contributing to the School’s growth strategy and parent community.

Deputy President

Chrissy has five children, four currently at TIGS in Year 4, Year 2, Year 1 and Kindergarten. She is originally from Melbourne but moved to the Illawarra five years ago via London and Darwin. She is a Speech Pathologist specialising in the management of adults with head and neck cancer, and voice disorders, presently on maternity leave from her position at Liverpool Hospital. Chrissy and her family joined the TIGS community in 2023. Chrissy believes active parent involvement in a school’s community is crucial to a child’s sense of belonging at their school. Chrissy is looking forward to helping the P&F build stronger connections between the parents at TIGS.

Secretary

Lena has two children attending the School – in Year 2 and Year 5. Originally from Germany, Lena moved to Wollongong with her family five years ago. She is grateful to see her children thriving at TIGS and wants to serve the P&F to further strengthen the School community. Lena wants to help to create opportunities for parents to connect, get involved and advocate for their children in a constructive manner. She is a London trained company director with a particular interest in children’s rights. Lena looks forward to contributing her skills to help enhance the TIGS community.

Deputy Secretary

Helen is a relatively new member of the TIGS School community with a son in Year 8. She moved from the UK to the Illawarra 17 years ago after meeting her husband, who is from Wollongong, and wanted to experience Australian life. Helen has been a high school teacher for 29 years, teaching English and Drama in both continents. Upon moving into a home to start her family, she became neighbours with a wonderful family whose children attended TIGS, and through them, she learned about the School’s values and standards. Helen is passionate about being an active parent member of the School community and looks forward to volunteering within the P&F to assist with many future ventures.

Treasurer

Perry has two children, Gabriel who attended TIGS from Kindergarten to Year 6 and Cora who started in Pre-Prep and is now in Year 6. Perry graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland. He has grown and sold IT businesses and did a six year stint as Asia Pacific Director of Customer Service and Support for Microsoft. Perry moved to Wollongong to start a property management business in 2008. While he loves living in Wollongong, he will always be a Queenslander. Perry joined the P&F as he values strong connection between parents and the School management.

Deputy Treasurer

Suellen has one child in Year 8 and is relatively new to TIGS and the School community. Her experience to date has been very positive and she is impressed by how welcoming and inclusive everyone has been. Suellen is a Registered Nurse at the Wollongong Hospital and Occupational Health Nurse for Coal Services. These roles keep her busy, but she is keen to contribute what time she has available to assisting the School. Suellen is looking forward to engaging with the P&F and contributing to her son’s schooling experience.

Committee Member

Heather is a fairly new member of the TIGS School community, with two children who joined the School midway through 2023. Her children are now in Years 3 and 5. Heather has many years of project management, safety and community engagement experience gained across government and private industry. Heather has a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Psychology, and a Masters in Strategic Management, studying both degrees at the University of Wollongong. She also has her Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, and has worked in the Learning and Development area. Heather is looking forward to getting further involved in the School community through the P&F, and is passionate about building a strong school community.

Committee Member

Megan has two children currently attending TIGS Junior School. Megan works in office management for a small local business and currently coordinates alongside volunteers at the TIGS Second Hand Uniform Shop. She is looking forward to continue working with the P&F and TIGS families to continue to provide community connection within the School.

Committee Member

Bushra has two children (Year 7 and Kindergarten) who have been at TIGS since 2017. She moved to Wollongong in January 2009. Bushra is a dentist who works as an academic at University of Wollongong with research interests towards oral health in our local communities. She is looking forward to contributing, collaborating and building a strong connection between school parents and the School management.

Representative to the NSW Parents Council

Justine has children in Prep and in Year 2 and joined the TIGS community and the P&F a couple of years ago. She grew up in South Africa, moved to Australia with her husband nearly 20 years ago and settled in the Illawarra in 2018. Justine is the general manager of a strategic communications agency, working across the agribusiness and sustainability sectors. She wants to help build a strong and engaged school community.

P&F objectives

We aim for TIGS to have an active and enthusiastic Parents and Friends Association (P&F). All parents and carers whose children are enrolled at the School are automatically members of the P&F.

Our objectives are:

(1) To organise fundraising events to assist the School in providing additional resources and infrastructure to enhance the education of students;

(2) To act as a link between School staff, parents and other members of the School community, in order to enhance educational outcomes;

(3) To act as a social network for parents and guardians;

(4) To assist parents in supporting their children in partnership with the School.

The P&F team holds at least one meeting per term where they discuss relevant issues concerning our School community. At the moment these take place in the Goodhew Research Centre (Library) and we usually make a Zoom option available.

The P&F provides opportunities to share your talents either through a specific role on the executive, volunteering and attending the meetings and having a positive input.

The P&F runs the Second-Hand Uniform Shop – creating an economic and sustainable option for uniforms.

Annually we hold our Mother’s Day stalls and the Great Fete and monthly we run an informal coffee catch up.

What is the role of the P&F Executives?

The P&F Association is managed by the Executive members. In this function, the Executive plans, manages and organises the Association’s affairs. To find out more refer to our constitution.

How to make contact with your Executive members? Please feel free to approach your Executive members with any issues you may wish to address at our meetings and/or for any information you may need throughout the year. Alternatively, you may wish to email your enquiry to pandf@tigs.com.au

Funds raised by the P&F

Most of our fundraising in recent years has gone towards equipment, materials and resources for our School. The solar panels, the tennis court refurbishment and the water coolers are some examples of where the funds have been spent.

HOW TO BE INVOLVED

Attend your P&F meetings
Volunteer for P&F events and the Second-Hand Uniform Shop
Join us for our monthly coffee mornings (dates announced in year group chats)

Join your Class Contact List

The TIGS P&F collates contact information provided by TIGS parents to create contact lists for each year group. This is an Opt-in offer and aims to make it easier to connect with other parents in your year group. Your details will only be shared with other parents in your children’s respective year groups and the P&F executive. The P&F will circulate these on a semi-annual basis.

https://forms.gle/z1AGcujAMtHGfNGu6

Upcoming P&F Events in May 2024

9 May Mother’s Day Stall: The P&F provides an opportunity for children to buy presents for their mums. Purchase the present by following this link: https://www.trybooking.com/events/1193578/sessions/4484688/sections/2242018/tickets

10 May Junior School Mother’s Day Breakfast:
Taking place in Rees Hall from 7.00am and will conclude at 8.00am for mums, grandmas, and their children.
You will be able to enjoy bacon & egg rolls, a selection of pastries, cereal and yoghurt with fruit. We will also have a coffee van making delicious barista coffees, all compliments of The Illawarra Grammar School’s Parents and Friends Association. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeA3GSHzMMZAKvLDwtmijsl3erkp64lwxu2qaJPgZgUCrA8QQ/viewform We will need dads to volunteer to set up or serve.

18 May TIGS Great Fete. We have each year group running a stall and some additional stalls also needing volunteers. Please support your year group and our stall holders by volunteering an hour of your time. https://www.tigs.nsw.edu.au/news/the-great-fete-returns-on-18-may/