Spotlight On . . .

Hi, my name is Katie Forbes, I’m the new Business Manager. It’s nice to be here at Syndal South in a smaller school with lots of happy young students around. 

When I was at primary school I liked studying language and reading. In high school I started learning German and went on an exchange trip to Munich for a few months over Christmas. The Christmas markets were amazing but I didn’t get to see much snow! At university I studied Spanish and went on two trips, first to Spain and then Chile. I remember visiting the deserts, the forests and even a glacier in southern Chile which was a brilliant blue colour. 

I decided to become an English/Spanish teacher and went back to Chile where I lived for seven years. I taught English to children and adults, in schools and in homes. I also taught Spanish to the foreigners who lived there; lots of them worked in the salmon farming industry. I did lots of translations about fish food and diseases! Did you know fish can get lice?

When I came back to Australia I started my family, while teaching Spanish part time at Monash University. I have two sons and a daughter, four nieces and a hairy, four legged “child” as well; his name is Sterling! He LOVES to be patted and if you stop, he will knock you with his paw to keep going!

About eight years ago I decided to make a change and start on my second career: working in school administration. I discovered I liked finance (even though Maths wasn’t my favourite subject) but I enjoyed working with money and calculating budgets. Now I am here working with you. I remember laughing when I started this term and saw the bills to pay for crickets; it took me a few seconds to realise they were for the frogs! The frogs are great and so many shades of green, which is one of my favourite colours.   

Have a lovely end of year break and see you next year.