Public School Success Stories

Public school success stories are not something we usually talk about. Not for any reason other than, it never occurred to us that we needed to until recently.

Confession – we’re not who you think we are.

Or should I say, we’re not what you think we are?

Nick and Trish Radge are public school students from middle-class families.

Shock. Horror!

We didn’t attend expensive private schools. We each worked 2 jobs so we could afford to buy our first home – Nick as a trader during the day and ‘glassy’ at the pub at night. I worked in administration during the day and as a kitchenhand at night.

At 25 we’d bought our first home.

Why do you need to know this?

A client was shocked to discover that Nick and Trish Radge went to public schools. That we didn’t grow up with parents who worked in finance or were professionals. And that we didn’t come from wealthy families.

It had never occurred to us that this was people’s perception.

Nick’s dad was a Qantas Captain, his mum a nurse. My father was a shearer & drover until an accident saw him end up in hospital where my mum was his occupational therapist. Mum stopped working as an OT when she had kids and then worked from home as a dressmaker.

You can’t be what you can’t see

Recently we listened to an interview with Human Rights Lawyer & Barrister Jennifer Robinson. Jennifer has represented Julian Assange since 2010 along with many other high-profile international human rights cases.

Jennifer Robinson went to the local public school and grew up in a low-income family in a small rural town in NSW.

As Jennifer says in the podcast, “You cannot be what you cannot see.”

Kids from her high school rarely went to university. In fact, when she announced in year 7 that she wanted to be a doctor she was told by a teacher to lower her expectations.

Jennifer Robertson now takes every opportunity to go back to Bomaderry High School to talk to the students and encourage them to aim high. To highlight that she is a public school success story, and they can be too.

Whilst kids from our high schools did go to university, Nick didn’t. He chose to go to work in an office. I went to university because I wanted to work in Human Resources…until I did. Turns out I prefer working with numbers than people.

We both had teachers who inspired us and encouraged our career choices. For me it was my year 12 Economics teacher Mr Willoughby. In 1986 he announced he was leaving teaching to run golf tours for Japanese tourists. We thought he was mad. Turns out he’d done his homework. Japanese tourism reached its peak in Australia in 1997 and Australian golf courses was a major drawcard.

Forging a career after public school

Whilst we didn’t have the old-school network to help us get established, we had a strong work ethic. Nick spent 18 months, for a couple of hours each evening, working on his first trading strategy. I sold Nick’s first trading course (now available free here) online back in 1998, on a dial up internet connection. Oh, the speed…was non-existent.

In 2005, Nick stopped working 2 jobs to focus solely on The Chartist, as it is known today.

In 2010 we employed 3 people to do the work Nick had previously been doing alone – Scott Goddard, Peter Hammersley and Craig Fisher. In 2015, Natasha Wenke took over a lot of my role.

Succession

Like Nick and I, our kids went to the local public school. Our son Zach moved to the city at 17 to attend university. Zach graduated with a Bachelor of Software and Computer Engineering and went to work for a software company for a couple of years.

18 months ago, Zach joined the family business.

All businesses need a succession plan, and we now have one.

24 years in business

In his book Free Schools David Gillespie concludes that it doesn’t matter which school you send your kids to but for best results they should study a language, play a musical instrument and have an engaged parent/s or carers.

If you’re debating where to send your kids to school, consider the local public schools. You may like to invest the money you would have paid in school fees or, like us, use the money to travel and give your kids a broader knowledge of the world and its wonderful cultures.

As our 24th year of business winds to a close, we would like to wish you all a happy and safe holiday.

May 2023 bring big trends and a year of good health and happiness.

Trish Radge