But pupils in years 4, 5 and 6 at Claymore Public School count some of Sydney's corporate high-flyers among their closest friends.

They're part of the Literacy Buddies program, an initiative of the Daystar Foundation in Leumeah which has the pupils write letters to their corporate pen pals and receive replies each month.

The students came together for a communal writing session in time for National Literacy Week, which was held from August 31 until last Sunday, September 6.

Claymore Public's relieving principal, Reg Corney, said the ``inspiring'' program had run at the school for the past three years.

``It gives them a real purpose for their writing,'' Mr Corney said. ``It really encourages them to write better, to ask questions and to write complete sentences.

``They have a connection to not just their own community but to corporate Australia.''

Daystar founder and chief executive officer Kingi Williams said the program itself had run for almost eight years and that its corporate mentors enjoyed it just as much as the children did.

Mr Williams said the corporate high-flyers particularly loved the opportunity to mentor children.

He said the program not only gave the pupils an incentive to write, but also a chance to communicate with people ``outside their immediate sphere of influence''.

He said the corporate mentors also organised Christmas parties for their pen pals.