Oh, we’re definitely feeling the love today 😍
Union High School’s MF committee members worked tirelessly this Valentine’s Day to raise funds for the 2020 Matric Farewell.
We’re thrilled to report that the school’s learners really supported their Valentine’s Day efforts, with children from every grade buying roses and cupcakes for the ones they admire.
The first round of the trials to select the Chris Hani District’s chess team for 2020 was held on Monday afternoon, 10 February.
This set of matches saw 21 schools participating and took the format of an individual Swiss Open chess tournament.
110 entrants battled it out in the Union High School hall in Graaff-Reinet, while a further 80 players pitted their skills against one another at Marlow Agricultural High School in Cradock.
The chess tournament was keenly contested by players from start to finish and saw a wave of promising young talent emerge.
(The second round of the trials will be held in March and the third soon thereafter, after which the the top players will be invited to a closed tournament in August, where the final selection will be made for the team that will represent the district at the South African Junior Chess Championship to be held in Johannesburg in early January 2021.
Union extends its thanks to all those who assisted in making the tournament a success – the section controllers, arbiters and all those who assisted in the many smalls tasks on the day.
| Time | Team | Opponent | Venue | Format |
| 14:00 | UHS U11A | Gill U11A | Gill Primary (away) | T20 |
| 14:00 | UHS U13A | Gill U13A | Puttick Field | T20 |
| 14:00 | UHS U13B | Gill U13B | Gill Primary (away) | T20 |
The first few weeks of Grade 8 can be overwhelming, exciting, daunting and ‘cool’ all at once!
In Arts and Culture, the Grade 8s studied graffiti and lettering and then had to choose a word which best described their first few weeks at Union.
They worked really hard and produced magnificent results!
The role of the School Governing Body is critical to developing and sustaining a fully functioning school, we, therefore, appeal to parents to support this meeting.
It was the Grade 10s turn on Wednesday morning, 12 February, to try and best the other grades in the ‘Love Sandwiches’ project recently initiated by the school’s Interact Club.
[This ongoing project sees the learners of the respective grades at Union compete to see who can make the most sandwiches in aid of this initiative.]
Armed with all their sandwich-making supplies, the three Grade 10 classes, led by their class teachers Miss Jacqui Jones, Mr Erwin Ittershagen-Strauss and Mrs Bronwen Langmead, managed to set a new record – a whopping 487 sandwiches!
The sandwiches were delivered later on that afternoon to the Midlands Hospital, the CMR and the soup kitchen at the East Street Congregational Church.
On Tuesday afternoon, 11 February, the Union High School pool witnessed a very exciting Interhouse Swimming Gala that contained an abundance of enthusiasm, physical effort and polished swimming strokes.
This was the first gala hosted by Union in the school’s swimming pool since it was revamped last year and the Houses rallied their swimmers for this long-standing friendly competition between Daly and Arnott.
While all the races were closely contested, a dedicated team of timekeepers stood poised with their stopwatches at one end of the pool, with house supporters and teams cheering enthusiastically from the sides.
As ever, the relays generated huge excitement – speed and lots of noise were evident as every position and point became vital towards the overall scores.
In the end there could only be one winner and it was Arnott House! They beat Daly House to the title with a strong 563 points in total compared to Daly House’s 389 points.
Congratulations Team Arnott!
A big well done goes to all those who swam!
On Thursday afternoon, 6 February, Union educators Mmes Helane Keyser, Kiki Nell, Hanli Rose-Innes and Jenny Street attended a training session hosted by the SAOU in Graaff-Reinet, themed ‘Barriers to Learning in the Inclusive Classroom’.
During this training session particular attention was given to the following most common barriers to learning that manifests itself in classrooms: ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, autism and auditory processing disorder (APD).
Particular focus was placed on strategies to support learners with these barriers in the inclusive classroom.
On Monday afternoon, 10 February, Union’s Top 6 junior boys and girls tennis players travelled to Cradock for what turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon of tennis against Cradock Primary School.
Matthew Paxton and Peter-Daniel Clegg were certainly Union’s top performers, winning their singles as well as their doubles matches on the day.
Tara Ferreira, Grace Kemp and Mecoli Vorster are also to be congratulated on winning their singles.
Grade 8 learners at Union High School had the privilege today of becoming recipients of Gideons Bibles.
The learners were honoured with the Bibles early this morning, Tuesday, 11 February, when Mr Johan Botha and his wife, René, representatives of The Gideons International in South Africa visited the school.
