Healy State School hosted Matty Bowen as part of the Try for Five program which is a joint initiative of the North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos’ Community Foundation program.

The Try for Five program uses high-profile Cowboys players to influence students and their families through inter-school attendance challenge. It targets schools with poor attendance rates.

Matty Bowen is the community engagement officer within the foundation said the program had shown to directly improve primary school student attendance.

“Healy State School is one of nine schools enrolled in this program and it is good to come out and visit the students,” Mr Bowen said.

“We have been conducting fortnightly messages to the kids in person and presenting the attendance winning class and students with their gifts.

“We also conduct messages via video link but try to come out to schools regularly.

Mr Bowen said if he had a professional NRL player visit his school while a child and convey the same message, he would have tried to attend school more frequently.

“It will be better for the kids in the long run if they attend school. Parents were also able to attend the talk at the school, to help convey the same message at home,” he said.

As a partner in the foundation, Bronco’s players who are also included in the program. Scott Prince, Justin Hodges and Brent Tate also travel to the schools.

Healy State School principal, David Hardy, said they were excited to be included in the program.

“There has been a lot of buzz in the school for the last two weeks with the students asking when Matty was arriving,” Mr Hardy said.

“The attendance winning students could choose from prizes including USBs, headphones and yo-yos. The winning class being year one, all won a broncos and cowboys football.

“We have already seen a gradual increase in this term’s attendance, the players visits are making a big difference. This is a great program that allows the children to better their attendance and education while getting visits from professional NRL players.”