Maori posters promote hygiene and tidiness
Prasun Acharya (centre), CrestClean’s Taranaki Regional Manager, presents Maori posters to Vogeltown School Deputy Principal Mike George. With them are Room 8 pupils Kirra Jones, Dylan Richards-Beehre, Jacob Ansell and Rylee Schofield.
Vogeltown School pupils are among the first New Plymouth kids to get their hands on a series of novel posters that use humour to promote the use of Te Reo Maori.
But the colourful free posters, designed and produced by commercial cleaning company CrestClean, also contain important health, hygiene, and environmental messages.
Mike George, Vogeltown School’s Deputy Principal, believes the posters will encourage kids to adopt good hygiene habits and also prompt them to take more care of their surroundings – at school and at home too.
“The kids in the posters are quite animated and the posters are really bright and a good size,” said Mike. Youngsters would relate to the characters in each one and the strong sentiments the cartoon images contained, he added.
The posters touch on different issues, with one focussing on keeping a school and its grounds litter-free.
Mike said as well as promoting Te Reo, the posters dovetailed with the Vogeltown School’s karikea. “It’s part of our mission statement about caring for the land and that’s about picking up rubbish.”
He planned to unveil the posters to pupils during assembly. Afterwards they would be displayed prominently around the school. “The whole school will see them,” he added.
“We’ll have a quick talk about each one and what the message behind them is.”
Prasun Acharya, CrestClean’s Taranaki Regional Manager, said promoting good hygiene habits using humorous images had proved popular with school customers.
“These posters get a great reception from the kids and teachers. They are fun but also carry a strong message that young people can easily relate to.”
The posters are available free of charge to schools. The initiative has been hailed by Hoana Pearson, president of the Te Akatea New Zealand Maori Principals’ Association.
“For years, many of us in Maori education have been hand drawing and photocopying our resources,” he said. “To see things that are beautiful and produced in colour for our kids and our communities really validates the beauty of Te Reo.”
Contact CrestClean to order packs of free posters for your school. Email: news@crestclean.co.nz
