A FORMER North Queensland Cowboy addressed Healy State School last Friday about the importance of attending school.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 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 and Broncos players to influence students and their families through an inter-school attendance challenge. The program targets schools with poor attendance rates.
Matty Bowen is the community engagement officer and said Healy State School worked hard throughout the year and improved their attendance rate.
“It is always nice to come out and visit the students at Healy and hand out prizes for their attendance,” Mr Bowen said.
“It has been good watching the progress of a small school like Healy displaying the Try for Five program and working hard to make sure all students are attending school.
“After the Christmas break I will be coming back to make sure all students are attending school and hand out some more prizes for good attendance records.”
Year four was awarded for the best attendance for the whole year. Year four teacher, Ashlea Snodgrass said it was great to see her students showing up to school five days a week.
“Students are encouraging each other to come to school everyday. If a student sees a classmate down town they encourage them to go to school,” Ms Snodgrass said.
“Students have been improving their learning because they are attending school more often, so I am really proud of year four, but proud of the whole school for trying really hard.
“There is always a lot of buzz in the school when the students know we have Matty Bowen coming to visit and he presented year four students with Cowboys and Broncos footballs.”
Healy State School is one of nine schools enrolled in the Try for Five program and conduct fortnightly video messages with the NRL stars when they cannot be at the school in person.