Students from Whitechapel’s London Islamic School pick up litter along the Commercial Road. Pic: Kois Miah

School pupils in Tower Hamlets have been put to work in an attempt to clean up the streets and encourage engagement in the local community.

Students from the London Islamic school in Whitechapel, took to the streets for the big clean-up, on Tuesday. The year 7 students began their task on Damien street and continued until Commercial Road.

Cigarette butts, cans, and fast-food waste among other items thrown onto the streets by pedestrians, were picked up by the students. By the end of the afternoon, 12 bags of rubbish were collected.

Mohammad Yaser, Head of Citizenship at London Islamic School, said: “Each year, we team up with local voluntary groups to improve our local community. Previously, we conducted a food drive at the homeless shelter where the children catered to the needs of the elderly.”

The independently-run school teamed up with two voluntary groups in the area to run the service. The first voluntary group was Clean up UK, which encourages people to take action on street littering. The second group, Knowledge to Action is providing training for communities to learn about social responsibility.

The school is planning to continue running the service each term, and to inspire students into making a contribution to the community. “We find this initiative to be an important part of our school and religion,” Yaser added.

Mazahirul Uloom School in Bethnal Green, east London also took part in the clean-up drive, and cleared up streets in Mile End Park and Stepney’s Shandy Park.

Tower Hamlets council is reinforcing the goal of clean streets with the ‘Find it, Fix it, Love it’ mobile app. It calls on the community to report on issues like street litter and overflowing dustbins.