ARMIDALE businessmen John Sewell and Brian Abbott have thrown their support behind the literacy program at the BackTrack school.
They are donating a series of books suitable for teenagers trying to catch up on their reading skills as most of the books available are pitched towards primary school students.
“There are series of books we can get that meet the gap and cover topics that our students are interested in,” teacher Andrew Simpson said.
“They are keen to read but the key to making real progress is for them to engage with books on subjects that appeal to them.
“We are really grateful for this support to buy those books as the cost has been beyond our resources at present.”
Mr Sewell, director of real estate firm The Professionals, and Mr Abbott, the principal of the Armidale Business Centre, visited the classroom last week to meet the students and learn more about their activities.
“This is a tremendous program and is achieving great results,” Mr Sewell said.“There has been strong community support for what BackTrack is doing and that helps it become less reliant on government funding.”
Mr Abbott also commended the school and BackTrack’s activities.
“It engages young people, helps them overcome their difficulties and gives them direction and purpose,” he said.
“Both John and I are impressed with what we’ve seen and we are only too happy to help the literacy program.”
The highly successful classroom at the BackTrack HQ has been operating all year with two teachers allocated a day each a week by the Department of Education.
Attendance rates are well over 90 per cent from a group of students who have a record of truancy and low achievement at mainstream school.
