STEM Fields Promotion by US

On Tuesday morning, 6 September, a group of postgraduate physics students from Stellenbosch University – backed by the professional and scientific bodies of Optica, SPIE and NITheCS – visited Union High School, Graaff-Reinet as part of an outreach programme to promote an interest in STEM fields (i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) among high school learners.
๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฌ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿญ ๐—ฃ๐—ต๐˜†๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฆ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฎ ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ – applicable to the school curriculum – which covered a wide range of scientific topics, such as optics, momentum, electricity and electromagnetic induction, to name but a few.
The learners enjoyed the session tremendously and now have a much better understanding of the study and career opportunities that are available to students of math and science.
๐˜œ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฉ ๐˜š๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ถ๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฑ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ต!

Premier Hockey Cup

There is cause for much excitement atย Union High School, Graaff-Reinetย this week, as our inaugural ๐—ฃ๐—ฅ๐—˜๐— ๐—œ๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—›๐—ข๐—–๐—ž๐—˜๐—ฌ ๐—–๐—จ๐—ฃ – an internal competition – takes centre stage!

The teams have been selected and ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ณ ๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฐ:๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†, ๐Ÿฑ ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ at the UHS AstroTurf – spectators are welcome!

Teams were compiled by way of a draw from a list of more than 60 of our hockey players, from u/13A level to senior 1st team level, who will battle it out to be crowned the first ever victors of this exciting competition!

This tournament is a first of its kind for Union, and sees teams comprised of Unionโ€™s hockey talent from junior level through to senior level face off against each other for top honours in a 3-day long round robin tournament.
Unionโ€™s Head of Hockey, Mr Calvin Beck, said, โ€œWe are very excited to host this event. We hope that this tournament will create an environment and atmosphere where all of Unionโ€™s hockey players feel welcome and get an opportunity to bond and get to know one another across all age groups. We hope the experience will be one our players will enjoy and look forward to seeing the bonds created between the players as the younger ones benefit from the seniorsโ€™ mentoring.โ€
This year, the ๐—ž๐—ก๐—œ๐—š๐—›๐—ง๐—ฆ hockey team, walked off the AstroTurf on Wednesday afternoon, 10 September, as the very first victors of Union High School, Graaff-Reinet‘s ๐—ฃ๐—ฅ๐—˜๐— ๐—œ๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—›๐—ข๐—–๐—ž๐—˜๐—ฌ ๐—–๐—จ๐—ฃ (an internal competition).ย  The team – captained by Caytah-Leigh Koeberg and Soso Mroro – put forth a stellar effort all round to remain the only unbeaten team during the tournament. ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ the captains and their respective team members, Sarah Jacobs, Lisa Menos, Katelyn Trollip, Amy Waddelow, Ambesiwe Tokwe, Alex Short, Jade Slater, Elizabeth Houseman, Sinalo Khali, Zoรซ Mills, Brogan Koeberg, Sesethu Kotishini, Bukhobenkosi Nomatye, Ashley Shell and goalie Joy Merifield.
๐˜‰๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ต!

Angora MTB Classic

Union was well represented at this past weekendโ€™s Angora MTB Classic in Jansenville ๐Ÿ’ช
๐—ช๐—˜๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ ๐——๐—ข๐—ก๐—˜ to Union educator ๐— ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—›๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜†๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ, who successfully completed the 21km half marathon on Sunday, 4 September, crossing the finish line as the second lady home. She is seen here with Union learners, ๐—๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‡ and ๐—•๐—ฒ๐—ป and ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ธ๐—ฒ who each did the 5km run!
๐˜”๐˜ณ๐˜ด ๐˜’๐˜ฆ๐˜บ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ณโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ฉ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ, ๐˜•๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ, ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ 25๐˜ฌ๐˜ฎ ๐˜”๐˜›๐˜‰ ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฆ, ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ 4๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ, ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜œ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ, ๐˜Ž๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜“๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ 21๐˜ฌ๐˜ฎ ๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ 5๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ.
Well done to all!

Rising Stars Tennis Tournament

On Sunday, 4 September, Union High School, Graaff-Reinet welcomed tennis players from Kingswood, St Andrewโ€™s College, Hoรซr Volkskool and Nico Malan to our campus for the Sarah Baartman leg of the national ๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—ฆ๐—œ๐—ก๐—š ๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—”๐—ฅ๐—ฆ ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ก๐—ก๐—œ๐—ฆ ๐—ง๐—ข๐—จ๐—ฅ๐—ก๐—”๐— ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง.
๐™๐™๐™š ๐™ช/16 ๐™ฅ๐™ก๐™–๐™ฎ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ ๐™ง๐™š๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™š๐™จ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™ƒ๐™ž๐™œ๐™ ๐™Ž๐™˜๐™๐™ค๐™ค๐™ก ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ข๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ, ๐™–๐™ง๐™š: (boys) Josh Neill, Angus McLaggen, Peter-Daniel Clegg, Stephan Vorster, (girls) Tara Ferreira, Catah-Leigh Koeberg, Kenza Neill and Charlize Vorster.
Congratulations to our girlsโ€™ team, who along with Kingswood, will represent the district in the next round on 1 and 2 October in East London. Congratulations are also extended to the teams from St Andrewโ€™s College and Nico Malan who will represent the district in the boysโ€™ section.

Senior Tennis Results

On Monday last week, Union High School, Graaff-Reinetโ€™s 1st boys and girls senior tennis teams played a match against Cradock, narrowly losing by 13 matches to 11.
This past weekend, the tennis players competed in the ๐— ๐—”๐—ฅ๐—–๐—ข ๐—ช๐—”๐—ฆ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐— ๐—”๐—ก ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ก๐—ก๐—œ๐—ฆ ๐—ง๐—ข๐—จ๐—ฅ๐—ก๐—”๐— ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง in Middelburg, where our Top 4 boys and girls faced very strong opposition.
We are pleased that they reversed last weekโ€™s result against Cradock, beating them by 33 games to 31.
Another fine result was a narrow defeat by Kingswood, by the same margin.
Unionโ€™s second tennis team, did their school proud by winning the B section of the tournament – they defeated Middelburg, Aliwal North and Cradock.
๐™Ž๐™–๐™™รฉ ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ฎ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™๐™–๐™ฎ๐™ก๐™– ๐™†๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ก๐™ก ๐™ง๐™š๐™˜๐™š๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š๐™™ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š โ€œ๐™ฃ๐™ค ๐™—๐™ก๐™–๐™ข๐™š ๐™œ๐™–๐™ข๐™šโ€ ๐™–๐™ฌ๐™–๐™ง๐™™ ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™จ๐™ฅ๐™ค๐™ง๐™ฉ๐™จ๐™ข๐™–๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™๐™ž๐™ฅ โ€“ ๐™ฌ๐™š๐™ก๐™ก ๐™™๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™š ๐™œ๐™ž๐™ง๐™ก๐™จ!
Coach, Mrs Louise Vorster, extends her thanks to the tennis players for their good conduct, both on and off the court.
๐˜ž๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ!

Junior Tennis vs Karel Theron

On Tuesday afternoon, 30 August, Union High School, Graaff-Reinet hosted Karel Theronโ€™s Top 6 u/13 boys and girls for an afternoon of ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ก๐—ก๐—œ๐—ฆ.
Well done to the Union girls, who won their encounter 6 โ€“ 3, as well as the boys, who beat their counterparts by 9 matches to 0. They certainly extended themselves and played excellent tennis.
๐˜œ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ถ๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜’๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ง๐˜ง ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜บ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด.
The matches were all played in fine spirit.

Learner Leaders Improving Together

Members of Union High School, Graaff-Reinet‘s Representative Council of Learners (RCL), along with those representing Hoรซr Volkskool, had the privilege of attending a Leadership Development Session facilitated by Ms Josephine Rodgers, the Eastern Cape’s Deputy Provincial Manager for FEDSAS.

In this follow-up session to one held in May this year, the main topic of discussion dealt with ๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—ฅ๐—”๐—ง๐—˜๐—š๐—œ๐—– ๐—ฃ๐—Ÿ๐—”๐—ก๐—ก๐—œ๐—ก๐—š.

๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜จ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ท๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฉ๐˜ต ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ถ๐˜ญ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ด.