Academic, Bulletin

Matriculant Receives Best Achiever Award

Union High School is proud to announce that Katherine Imrie has been awarded the Rupert Achievement Award for being the highest achieving 2020 matric candidate in Graaff-Reinet.
The Rupert Achievement Award consists of a cash prize that will be paid towards her studies.
Katherine has just arrived at the University of Cape Town where she has been accepted to study towards a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree.
Congratulations Katherine! Best of luck in your studies!
Bulletin, Hostels

New Junior Co-ed Boarding Establishment

One thing is certain: change is essential. Change means growth, progress and moving forward.
In what has been one of the most significant developments at Union High School in recent times, the school officially reopened its two boarding houses as co-ed establishments on Monday, 1 March 2021 – Herby Arnott House as a junior co-educational boarding house for Grade 5 to 7 learners and Arthur Kingwill House as a senior co-educational boarding house for Grade 8 to 12 learners.
Herby Arnott House has served the school as its girls’ hostel since 1959 when it was built. Arthur Kingwill House, in turn, has served as the school’s boys’ hostel since its construction in 1953. As of this week, these two boarding establishments now offer Union High School’s boarders a modern, vibrant and age-appropriate co-ed experience.
Combined, the Union Preparatory School and Union High School now offer three co-educational boarding houses:
• Max Kroon House for the Grade 1 to 4 learners;
• Herby Arnott House for the Grade 5 to 7 learners and;
• Arthur Kingwill House for the Grade 8 to 12 learners.
At Union, we pride ourselves on providing our boarders with a safe and supportive environment and believe that the restructuring of our boarding establishments as co-educational houses will have many benefits for our learners, not least the further development of the family atmosphere for which Union is rightly proud, but it will also serve to provide a mutually supportive environment for both boys and girls to live and work together and learn from each other.
All three houses have separate boys’ and girls’ wings with spacious common rooms, game rooms and extensive grounds and sports facilities that provide the necessary break-out spaces for busy and active children.
An experienced and dedicated team of boarding staff creates a warm and caring atmosphere across all three boarding houses, offering round the clock support to ensure the learners feel at home.
Each house has been structured in such a way that if offers its boarders a comfortable home-away-from-home where they can feel a sense of belonging, make friends and enjoy their school years fully immersed in Union’s vibrant campus life. This enables learners to flourish at a time in their life when they are making great leaps in their academic, physical and emotional development.
Seen here is our very first group of Grade 5 to 7 boarders to reside in Union’s new junior co-educational boarding establishment at Herby Arnott House.
Bulletin

Youth For Christ

After a year-long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the weekly meetings of the Junior SCA resumed again last week.
Union’s Junior and Senior Student Christian Association (SCA) is a society that stands for Jesus Christ. It is a safe place for girls and boys who are walking in faith to come and grow and have fun with other Christians.
The Junior SCA meetings, which at present are open to all Grade 5, 6 and 7 boarders, are held every Wednesday evening, under the guidance of Ms Jenny Street.
These intimate meetings take the form of a Bible lesson and activities around a specific theme, supported by Scripture references and prayer.
Biathlon, Student Life

Learners Add Colour to Middle Street

On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, 3 and 4 March, a few of Union’s learners enjoyed the once-in-a-lifetime experience of working alongside renowned artist, Michèlle Nigrini, while creating a massive work of art in Middle Street.
Their eye-catching mural was created to celebrate the unique immersion of colour, collaboration and creative interaction of two simultaneous art exhibitions in Graaff-Reinet, which opened to the public on Friday, 5 March.
The first exhibition, ‘In Conversation with Colour Symphony’, is being housed at the Jan Rupert Art Centre in Middle Street and is a group exhibition comprised of over 40 artworks.
The second exhibition, ‘Outside In’, is a solo exhibition by Nigrini, and is being housed in Church Street, at the Imibala Gallery.
Both exhibitions are centred around Nigrini’s extraordinary installation, ‘Colour Symphony’, which was moved from the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch to the Jan Rupert Art Centre in Graaff-Reinet for this event.
Union High School extends its thanks to the Jan Rupert Art Centre and to artist Michèlle Nigrini for involving the learners in this project and invite the public to view their finished mural in Middle Street.
Academic, Bulletin

Congratulations Class Of 2020

2020 was an extremely challenging year, but, despite the extraordinary circumstances, the grit and resilience demonstrated by Union High School’s Class of 2020 have been remarkable.
Our sincerest thanks go to a very dedicated team of educators as well as to our Union families who supported the learners during this time.
The matrics of 2020, who achieved a 96,5% pass rate, gathered a total of 61 subject distinctions amongst themselves in the recent National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.
Of the 57 candidates, 80% achieved Bachelor passes.
Pass rate: 96,5%
Diploma pass: 18%
Number of candidates: 57
Number of distinctions: 61
Number of candidates with ‘A’ aggregates: 4
The Class of 2020’s Top 3 candidates, Sara Kingwill, Katherine Imrie and Laetitia Theron. Between them, they managed to collect 19 subject distinctions.
We heartily congratulate Katherine Imrie, Union High School’s top candidate, who achieved the highest average (87,43%) and a full house of seven (7) subject distinctions.
Sara Kingwill achieved the second-highest average (85,57%) and six (6) subject distinctions.
Laetitia Theron achieved the third-highest average (85,29%) and six (6) subject distinctions.
Bowen Langmead placed fourth with his average of 80,71% and three (3) subject distinctions.
Rounding out our top 5 is Erin Mitchell with an average of 77,57% and four (4) subject distinctions.
While we highlight the top achievers, we also acknowledge the hard work and personal accomplishments of each learner and appreciate the dedication and commitment to their learning.
Your achievements, despite the unprecedented circumstances you faced, are truly exceptional. Some lovely personal bests, a few superb distinctions and all-round pleasing results have been reported.
We’re so proud of you all and wish you every success as you embark on a new chapter of your lives.
Bulletin, Student Life

Prefects Get Together

On Thursday evening, 18 February, Union High School’s 2021 prefect body enjoyed an informal get-together at the Tony Burrell Union.
They spent their evening discussing their duties and responsibilities as prefects, having fun together during the various team-building activities and enjoying a delicious build-a-burger dinner.
The evening brought all of the prefects closer together and helped them to focus on a shared vision for this year.
The team of prefects look forward to working together with staff and learners in 2021!
Academic, Bulletin

Reimagining Education

The Union Schools are proud to announce our exciting new partnership with KELLER EDUCATION.
Keller Education is a collaboration of education leaders driven to reimagine schooling and committed to improving the school experience for modern children while specifically focusing on the quality of teaching and thinking in schools.
Driven by recent neuroscience research, they will be sharing decades of experience with our educators, while providing them with exceptional training, a variety of support strategies, ideas and toolboxes to navigate seamlessly through 21st-century schooling.
We are super excited about this new development and the benefits our learners are sure to reap from it! We hope you are too!
Have a look at the accompanying video or visit their website at http://www.keller.education/ to find out more.
Bulletin, Student Life

Special Welcome To Grade 5s

On Monday and Tuesday morning, the first days of school for our Group A and Group B learners respectively, Union High School’s head prefects made the extra effort to personally welcome Union’s new Grade 5s to the school.
The learners were introduced to the prefects, after which they were all presented with a little card. The purpose of the activity was to help the new learners feel welcome and part of the school community.
Bulletin

Meet Our EAs!

As part of a national youth employment drive launched by the Department of Basic Education (DoE) at the end of 2020, Union High School was supplied with four temporary Education Assistant (EA) positions to support our educators in strengthening the learning environment at the school.
Among other things, these EAs have been tasked with assisting our teachers to prepare their classrooms for teaching and learning and ensuring that teaching materials are available and ready for use.
They will also be helping the school with the learners’ educational and social development; maintain safe, secure and clean classroom environments; oversee learners out of the classroom and during lunch breaks; supervise group activities of learners and carry out administrative tasks as required by the school.
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲:

• Ms Eldré Davids
After matriculating, Ms Davids entered the world of finance, but her passion for children and their development soon saw her pursuing a career in education. She is currently a B.Ed Foundation Phase 1st Year student and is looking forward to the opportunity of making a real difference in the children’s lives while at Union.
• Ms Mitchellé Smit
Ms Smit moved to Graaff-Reinet from East London (where she was employed as a legal assistant) to support her husband who was called to serve the Graaff-Reinet community as a pastor. Ms Smit finds working with children to be very rewarding and fulfilling and is looking forward to being on hand in the classrooms, to help guide the learners through their lesson with any extra help that they might need.
• Ms Bethia Feldon
As an Old Unionite and a former student teacher at Union, Ms Feldon is already well-known among the members of our school community. Ms Feldon is currently doing the 4th Year of her Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree through Unisa. With a strong desire to instil a love for learning in children, she is looking forward to being a part of Union again this year.
• Ms Lineo Kekana
Ms Kekana was raised in Graaff-Reinet and attended the Union Schools from 2004 to 2011, matriculating at St Patrick’s College CBC. Ms Kekana holds a BSS Degree from Rhodes University and is currently a final Year LLB student. With a thirst for knowledge herself and a genuine interest in the different ways that children learn, she’s looking forward to having the opportunity to assist Union’s learners in their quest for knowledge.