Academic, Bulletin

Learners Introduced to the Culinary Arts

On Wednesday, 10 April, Olive Chef School – one of the top culinary arts schools in South Africa – paid a visit to Union High School.  During their interaction with our learners, executive chef Rinette Enslin proceeded to demonstrate the fine art of French cuisine.

Within 45 minutes, chef Rinette had prepared an exquisite looking three course meal, creating spectacular plates of food that were a delight to the eyes as well as the taste buds!  When asked how much such a meal would cost, learners were quite flabbergasted when chef Rinette answered “about R750”, after which she then explained how costing is done.

Olive Chef School – situated in Bloemfontein – is an internationally approved culinary school and their chef training courses are second to none.

The following are some of the career opportunities which formal, certificated studies in culinary education at Olive Chef School can afford you: chef, caterer, food stylist, hotel chef de cuisine, hotel food and beverage manager, test kitchen, restaurant manager and kitchen manager.

For those of our learners who are considering a career in the culinary arts, we hope you were inspired by this delicious presentation and that it has helped you in making an informed decision about your future.

Academic, Bulletin, Eco-Schools

Fun With Structures

Union’s Grade 7s are learning about natural and man-made structures in Technology this term.

Earlier this week, using spaghetti and marshmallows, students experimented with different structures to determine which ones are able to handle the greatest amount of load. This experiment helped them to further understand the effects that compression and tension forces have with respect to the strength of structures. Spaghetti cannot hold much tension or compress…ion; therefore, it breaks very easily. Marshmallows handle compression well but do not hold up to tension.

At the Union schools, we are thankful for small class sizes that allow teachers the opportunity to successfully conduct these experiments. Teachers are able to be actively involved with everything the learners do, resulting in increased participation and better communication between the teacher and the learners.

Bulletin, Cultural

Music Teachers’ Conference

The 97th annual national conference for the South African Society of Music Teachers (SASMT) was recently attended by Union’s Department of Music staff, Mmes. Sanette Brink, Zelda van Rooyen and Karmin van der Walt.

2019 marked the first time in almost 40 years that this prestigious event was hosted in Port Elizabeth.

According to Lestie Hughes, who chairs the Port Elizabeth branch of SASMT, the conference – a musical event of note, based on music education but structured to provide enjoyment to all lovers of music – has not taken place in the Bay since the 1980s.

The theme for this year’s event, which was held from 14 to 16 March in the auditorium on the Nelson Mandela University’s South Campus, was ‘Let the music speak’.  The conference’s programme included musical performances by the staff and learners of 10 Bay schools and some of NMU’s finest musicians as well as ‘hands-on’ choral and orchestra workshops.

Presentations and panel discussions on relevant topics such as music technology and the effective incorporation of contemporary music into the school curriculum were discussed and much-enjoyed by the Union conference-goers.

Bulletin

Building Improvements

At the Union schools, we firmly believe that a well-maintained school provides a safe and attractive learning environment for students. In keeping with this, the school is continually improving its facilities – from the classroom to the sports fields. At present, the school is repainting the school’s exterior facing the sports fields to give it a fresh and well-cared-for look.

Bulletin, Eco-Schools, Student Life

2nd Term Blood Drive

Learners and teachers each waited their turn to donate blood to the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) at Union High School on Tuesday morning, 9 April.

The regular blood drives at the school are aimed at fostering a culture of blood donation among the young learners and increasing the amount of blood donated in South Africa.Over the years, our learners – who always support the blood drives enthusiastically – have saved thousands of lives with this valuable contribution to the community.

Today, we hope to reach our target of 60 units.

• The SANBS also hosts a blood drive in Graaff-Reinet every second Monday afternoon of the month, between 14:00 and 18:00, at the Te Water Hall in Bourke Street. Those who are able, are encouraged to give blood and in so doing, save a life.

Anyone who is over 16, weighs over 50kg and who practices a healthy lifestyle can donate. When you donate one unit of blood you can save up to three lives, as blood is separated into red blood cells, plasma and platelets.

Bulletin, Eco-Schools

Juggling to Concentrate

Mention juggling in schools and most people probably think of balancing tasks and commitments, not of tossing balls into the air.

Research, however, has shown that juggling real objects increases a learners’ ability to concentrate, enhances their eye-hand coordination, and builds self-confidence.

On Monday morning, 8 April, an English Instruction Task, “Juggling”, saw the school’s Grade 5s practicing this skill on the school’s sports grounds and having a lot of fun while doing so.

Sport Results, Tennis

Jnr Tennis vs LVS

Monday afternoon, 8 April, saw Union’s top junior players facing Laer Volkskool in, what turned out to be, a very closely-contested bout of tennis.  The UHS junior girls proved superior on the day, beating Volkskool with 6 matches to 3.

The junior boys, who could, unfortunately, only field three of their regular first team players, lost their encounter with 3 games to Volkskool’s 6.  All the players put forth their best efforts on the day and certainly did the school proud.

Well done girls!
Rugby, Sport Results

Snr Rugby Results – UHS vs Muir College

On Saturday, 6 April, Union High School’s rugby teams faced one of the school’s oldest rivals, Muir College from Uitenhage.

A morning of hard fought competitive rugby ensued, resulting in a mixed bag of results.

The U/13A team won their match 38 – 19 and the U/14A team lost theirs 0 – 33.

The U/15A team beat their opponents 19 – 12, with the U/16As losing 10 – 45.

The third team and the second team then won their matches, 34 – 10 and 19 – 17, respectively.

The all-around tough matches set the tone for the much-awaited 1st XV game that followed.

The game between the two schools’ first teams was tremendously fast-paced from the get-go with both teams taking turns to test each other’s defences with neither one giving way.

The stalemate was broken when Muir converted a penalty kick to take the lead.

The game continued back and forth until Muir, through some individual brilliance, managed to break Union’s defences and crossed the line for the first try of the match.  Despite being behind, Union’s defence held true and although on the back foot, some quick thinking from Brett Amsterdam, turned defence into attack taking a quick tap penalty to put Junior Duba away to cross the line.  Muir kicked another penalty and the teams went into half time, with the score standing at 13-5 in Muir’s favour.

The second half seemed to prove a very different game, with Muir almost immediately taking the advantage to cross the line.  This seemed to have taken the wind out of Union’s sails and the players struggled to recover, leaving our defence breached too easily. This allowed Muir to cross our line almost at will and left too much work to play catch-up.

Despite falling far behind on the scoreboard, the Union boys continued to fight and put together some wonderful phases of attack towards the end of the game. They were finally rewarded for their efforts when Zusakhe Ngwane crossed the line after a well-structured mall from ten meters out.

The game’s final score was 37 – 10 in Muir’s favour.

“As expected, this was a tough, but well-contested match,” says coach Stephen Bezuidenhout. “We were, unfortunately, our own worst enemy and went down to a better side on the day.”

Bulletin, Cricket

Coca-Cola T20 – Kit Handover

Earlier this year, during the cricket season, Union High School’s first team cricketers participated in the 2019 Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge.

This challenge sees the finest of South African schools’ cricket teams battle it out in a national tournament.  Coach Stephen Bezuidenhout’s team made it to the quarter finals in the provincial round of this tournament. Following this, Coco-Cola paid a visit to the school earlier today, Friday, 5 April, to hand over a training kit to the team in recognition of this achievement. Coach Stephen Bezuidenhout received the training kit from Coca-Cola representative, Siyamthanda Dlamini.

The Coca-Cola training kit consists of agility hurdles, cones, saucer cones, jump ropes, a set of 10 slalom poles and two fielding single stumps. Coke also gave free coke to all the learners of the school. We are so grateful for the training kit! Thanks Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa!

We are also extremely proud of this magnificent achievement by our cricketers! They have set the bar very high for the teams that will follow.

Credit must also go to our coaching staff for the skills transfer and enormous time sacrifice.

Hockey, Sport Results

Snr Hockey Results – UHS vs VGHS

This past Saturday, 6 April, Union High School’s senior hockey teams came out tops in a full schedule of hockey fixtures against Grahamstown rivals, Victoria Girls’ High School (VGHS). A new match format being implemented by SA Hockey, saw all teams playing matches consisting of four 15-minute quarters each.

After the u/16Bs, u/16As and second team beat VGHS 3 – 0, 3 – 1 and 3 – 0 in their respective encounters, it was the first team’s time to shine and continue their winning ways.

The game started off at a good pace with Union dominating possession which lead to a goal in the 5th minute by Laetitia Theron, putting Union 1 – 0 up. VGHS bounced back not long after with an equalizer. With the scores level, the scene was set for a feast of goals.The Union girls stepped their play up a gear with a goal by Henze Japhta in the 15th minute which saw the first quarter end with the score standing at 2 – 1 in Union’s favour.The second quarter saw Union extend their lead to 3-1 with another goal from Laetitia Theron which was as a result of a superb build-up from good accurate passing. Sara Kingwill then put victory firmly beyond VGHS’s reach with a fourth goal in the 35th minute, which ended the third quarter with Union 4 – 1 up.

“The water breaks in-between quarters in the new match format, caused the girls to lose some momentum and concentration which resulted in them missing out on possible goal opportunities,” says coach Alvin August. The fourth quarter only saw one goal by Henzѐ Japhta in the 59th minute to give Union a convincing and well deserved 5 -1 victory.