The winners of the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys 2024 Try for 5! inter-school challenge have been crowned with Wulguru State School (Townsville) and Balaclava State School (Cairns) finishing top spot on their respective leaderboards.
Students at both school have been presented with their winner’s prize – a framed, team-signed 2024 Cowboys jersey in conjunction with their Term 1 visits.
Wulguru State School Principal Jennifer McCaskill said the Try for 5! program was having a positive influence on the entire student body.
“We’re incredibly proud of our students for embracing the Try for 5! message to come to school five days a week,” Jennifer said.
“It’s vitally important that our young people develop positive school habits in primary school and this program encourages and rewards their small daily habits that will add up to make a huge difference to their lives,” she said.
“Our students love having the Cowboys visit their classrooms and hearing their role models speak about the importance of school in such a fun and interactive way really works.
“The jersey will be hung proudly in the school as a reminder every day about the rewards of coming to school consistently.”
Try for 5!, supported by Rex Airlines and the National Indigenous Australians Agency, incentivises and rewards increased school attendance in program school across North Queensland.
Cowboys Community Ambassadors visit each of the schools once a term providing incentive prizes for students, families and teachers as well as classroom tools to help students track their own attendance, plus regular video messages and video calls with MVP classes and individual students and their families.
Schools are divided into two leaderboards named in honour of the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys NRL captains and based on enrolment numbers.
In 2024 Wulguru State School claimed the Dearden Leaderboard with an increase in attendance of 0.84% and Balaclava State School took out the Cotter Leaderboard for smaller schools with an increase of 2.5%.
Program ambassador and NRLW Cowboy Tahlulah Tillett said it was inspiring to see the positive changes that come with the students better engaging in school.
“It’s always fantastic to deliver these prizes to acknowledge the efforts the schools, students and families,” Tahlulah said.
“But I think the biggest reward is ours when we see students like Cyril at Wulguru State School who improved his attendance from 45% to 71% within one term,” she said.
“And at Balaclava State School we had one MVP who achieved 100% attendance and another who improved theirs from 43% up to 90% up during their MVP terms.
“Many of these young people face challenges just to get to school each day so we’re very proud of everything they achieve, and we look forward to another year bringing Try for 5! to schools across the North.”
