When learners returned after the holidays still enthused by the World Cup Soccer, Cedara School took the opportunity to put their energy to collecting litter in the surrounding community. Educator, Petronella Gasa remarked "The World Cup provided many learning opportunities – from languages to geography, cultures and maths. We calculated the amount of waste visitors would leave and made bar graphs of the different types."
The Midlands Meander Education Project assisted with fun lessons about the impacts (positive and negative) of the World Cup in South Africa, to fit Cedara's WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools theme of Local and Global issues. Everyone was astonished to think of all the extra water that was used, increased pollution and additional sewerage generated.
The next week, teams (countries) gathered with their newly painted flags, banners and protest signs to parade around the school and then collect waste from the neighbourhood. 138 bags of litter were collected by the enthusiastic teams and sorted into categories for recycling. Then during an active game involving vuvuzelas and soccer balls they recapped on all they had learnt about recycling.
Each participant received a certificate acknowledging their efforts and the top three teams all received prizes of books donated by WESSA, calendars from Art Publishers and magazines from Africa Geographic. The overall winners of the day were the Netherlands wearing bright orange magic hats.
Linda Zuma, Principal said afterwards "It was more than just a Clean Up campaign. Everybody learned and enjoyed it and the community joined in. It was awesome. We will be participating in another campaign with the community soon and believe the Minister of Environmental Affairs will be attending."