It was a big thumbs up for CrestClean as these youngsters tucked into a pizza treat.
The Mahora School pupils took top honours in the Cleanest Classroom Award. Boxes of mouth-watering pizza were delivered by CrestClean franchisee Waimarama Taumaunu as a tasty reward for keeping their classroom tidy.
The programme is run at many of the schools throughout the country that are cleaned by CrestClean franchisees.
Abby Latu, CrestClean’s Hawkes Bay Regional Manager, said the competition was popular and a win-win for everyone.
“I think it is a brilliant way of ensuring children and teachers take ownership of their own environment, leaving us to do the actual cleaning, which is what we are there to do.”
And she paid tribute to hardworking Waimarama for her commitment to the school.
“Waimarama loves working at the school. She enjoys buying all the goodies. At Christmas she wore a Santa hat to reward the cleanest class.
“She shops around for baskets and goodie bags and she loves being involved with the kids and making them smile with a treat and a ‘well-done’ certificate.”
For Waimarama, and her partner Uriah Wirihana, working at Mahora School is a labour of love, she says.
“Everyone always make us feel so welcome and it’s a nice environment to work in.”
She enjoys running the Cleanest Classroom competition and said it had made a real difference to her workload at Mahora School. When youngsters keep things tidy it means she and her partner can focus their cleaning on other areas.
The Rooms 8 and 9 pupils quickly cottoned on how to win the competition, she said.
“We told them what we do when we clean, and we gave them a list of the things they could do to get an advantage and win the competition.
“Now they pretty much do everything on that list. They pick up rubbish in the classrooms, wipe down their desks, and generally keep everything nice and tidy.”
Waimarama was banking on the kids remembering the clean-and-tidy message outside of school.
“Hopefully when they go home they’ll help keep the house clean as well,” she added.
