Nagle Profiles
Kylie DaSilva Pereira
Kylie Da-Silva is a caring mother, a funny teacher, a loving wife and a talented, artistic women. She took the chance to sit down and let me ask about her and her life, back then and now.
So why don't we start by telling me a little about yourself. So your name, age, place of birth, where you grew up and your family.
Okay, so my name is Kylie. My maiden name was Brown. I am married with a very common portuguese surname- I thought I was going to get a exotic surname and it turns out that Dasilva Pereira is as common in Portugal as Brown or Smith or jones was as I was growing up. I am 48 going to be 49 this year. I was born in Auburn public hospital and I grew up in Toongabbie. My family- my mum lives in Toongabbie and my two sisters, one lives in Central Coast with her family and the other lives at St Mary's with her daughter and son.
So where did you go to for primary and high school?
For primary, I went to Girraween primary school and I went to Girraween high school. Miss Serbin also went to the same school as me but she was in the year ahead.
What sort of student were you in school? Maybe a teachers pet or a rebel?
I was very quiet in primary and most of my friends would've been boys. I didn't really start having more girlfriends until I got to the end of primary school. In high school, I was reasonably studious but i became a little bit rebellious near year 11 and 12.
So do you have any memorable stories from school?
My sister who was in the year below me, no one would pick on me in high school because my sister was a hockey player. Basically this boy touched me in the canteen line, he went to grab me and my sister saw him and she said "Don't you touch my sister", and she turned him around and she went 'whack' and gave him a black eye.
Did you ever do something for someone or a friend that cost you something? So maybe, you did something for a person and you got in trouble for it?
Oh yeah, this friend , she used to sit next to me and she would talk all the time. She used ask me questions in mathematics because I understood the maths but she was having trouble so I would go to help her with the maths, and because I was explaining something to her, the maths teacher pegged me with chalk and sent me out and I got mom called. All it was, I was helping her with maths, so i wasn't doing anything, and she knew but did she say "She was only helping me, Miss", no, she just stayed silent. So after that I don't think I was very helpful to her, but we are still friends.
Who was your role model back in high school and why?
Probably an art teacher of mine because she made me love art even more and she inspired me a little bit. I really liked her and she was a bit interesting.
What about now?
My inspiration now? I don't know, can we come back to that later?
Sure
It's a hard one!
Do you have any regrets now for high school?
High school, no. Primary school, yes. I probably should've stood up to my bully much earlier. I did eventually stand up but I shouldn't have let it go for as long as it did.
What did you do after school. Uni, college or maybe a world tour?
I went to a college in Newcastle so I lived away from my family and it was good thing but I didn't like it at all. So after a year, I applied for Sydney and I came here.
So now you are an art teacher, did you have any previous jobs?
Yes, I worked part-time. I worked in a newsagency, a chemist, a glass shop. So the newsagency and the chemist jobs went for a long time, but the glass shop job was only for a year and a half. I also worked in Grace Brothers or Myers, a banking office and a chicken shop.
Did you work in any other section of this school, or just art? Would you want to teach in any other area, or be something else?
I have taught food technology and design and technology. I like doing them but I don't like teaching them. I like cooking but I don't really want to share it. Also, for some of the assignments, I had to eat the food the girls made and I didn't really like it because some girls had been touching her nose and other things!
How long have you taught here at Nagle?
I started at 1990, so I've been here for about 25 years.
When you first started teaching, you did a few other jobs. Do you do anything outside of school now?
No, just running my children everywhere, chauffeur! Haha.
Okay, throughout your whole life, what have you been most proud of?
Um, becoming a mother and having two healthy children.
Anything else?
Sometimes there will be some child who will, I don't know there will be some sort of struggle and you do something and they have some sort of breakthrough. You can see them make this massive progress so i'm very proud of them. It's a lot of little things!
Last one, the question I have really wanted to ask, do you have a bucket list or any goals you want to complete? If yes, what is it?
One of them is that I want to travel.
So like a world tour?
No, I have already done that. I probably want to go to France because me and my husband love it. He has a boat license, so we'd probably like to one day rent or even buy a barge- it's like a house boat, so you stay on the boat and you cruise slowly up and down canals. We would like to do that and he has enough French for us to do that relatively easily. I would also like to start painting again, maybe once my children are off my hands and I would also like to live near the beach. Those are the three things; live near the beach, travel and start painting again.
So, back to the question we missed... Who is your role model and why?
I've probably got lots of role models. I look up to Miss Hansley-Dels- she's so organised and patient, especially with me! I look up to Miss Foley- she's a very strong and powerful woman. I admire her strength and courage. I also look up to a whole lot of public figures, probably an artist I admire, this lady called Hannah Hock who did photography and photo montage, she lived in a very male-dominated world. My mother, not now but her younger self.
So do you have a main reason to why you admire these certain people?
I think probably their courage, their strength and determination!
Okay, thank you so much for this interview!
No thank you.