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.

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.

Bulletin, Eco-Schools

Striving for Eco-Schools Excellence

Since partnering with the WESSA Eco-Schools initiative in 2014, Union High School has worked with perseverance and determination to shape the future generation to think and act green.

The Eco-Schools programme is an international programme that was developed to support environmental learning in the classroom and is aimed at creating awareness and action around environmental sustainability in schools and their surrounding communities.

Now in its sixth year as a part of this programme, Union is proud to say that through our continued endeavours in this regard, we have instilled a deep sense of responsibility within all of the leaners at the school, equipping them with the readiness to do more.

To get the ball rolling for this year, the Eco-School Committee for 2019 has been established and consists of: (back) Ms Jenny Street (co-ordinator of the WESSA Eco-Schools Programme and the Eco-Club at Union High School), Mr William Pringle (Headmaster) and Mrs Mariëtte Burger (PR and Marketing). Middle: Mrs Christina Nell, Ms Rosemary Scheepers (SANParks), Mrs Danelle Botes and Mrs Marsha Bouwer (parent). Front: Thokozani Mpanza (Grade 7), Liyema Sanjani (Grade 11) and Tsireletso Tsolo (Grade 11). Absent: Ann-Noleen Koeberg (Grade 7).

This initiative is sure to leave its green footprint upon the face of the Earth. We hope to continue doing this good work and paving the path for a sustainable future.

 • To find out more about our activities in this regard, visit and like our UHS Eco-life Facebook page.

Bulletin

Welcome to the Union Team

Union High School is pleased to announce the appointment of Mariëtte Burger as the school’s new PR, Marketing & Fundraising Coordinator.

With a background in communications and journalism, Mariëtte’s role will be to key in helping shape and enhance the Union brand while continuing to develop our communications and marketing activities. We are excited to have her on board and believe she will be a great asset to our team. Mariëtte said that she is looking forward to immersing herself in the community and working with the Union staff.

Bulletin, Eco-Schools

Eco-Wise Day

Thursday, 14 April was Eco-wise day at Union and each grade spent time engaged in activities based on the theme of conservation of water and recycling. Our campus was abuzz with children filling up recycled bottles with rainwater for those in need; posters were made; desks refurbished; there was a trip to the dam where water and wetlands were discussed; the grade 7s walked to Mackie’s pit where our water comes from; stationery was upcycled; water filters made and a few even danced a happy holiday dance! We wish all our staff and learners a happy, restful holiday and please remember to save water wherever you can.

Bulletin, Hockey, Rugby

Senior Rugby and Hockey Festival

Our Senior Rugby and Hockey festival ended on a high note with a great win for our rugby boys. Our girls only lost 1 game during the tournament.

Thank you to our sports men and women for working so hard to provide spectators with such great entertainment!
Thank you to our coaches and managers who gave of their holiday time to be with our children.
Thank you to our parents and Old Unionites who supported them wholeheartedly and positively and who gave so much of their time to cook, cook and cater, sell drinks and provide sustenance.
Thank you to all past pupils who popped in for a visit.
Thank you to our ground staff who were up at sparrow’s each morning, who cleaned and watered and fetched and carried even with load shedding and water outages.
Thank you to our friendly and efficient kitchen staff who worked tirelessly from dawn to midnight.
Thank you to our wonderful boarding houses who accommodated so many without a complaint.
Thank you to our first aiders who were at the ready through each and every match.
Thank you to our media team who recorded and assisted with sound and video capturing.
Thank you to our ball boys and those learners who gave of their holiday time to to gate duty and who worked at the coffee stations.
Thank you to schools from neighboring towns who supported Union teams with such great spirit!
Thank you to our Sports Department who did so much for months to make this festival run so smoothly and effectively.
Thank you to our Union Team – together we achieve so much!

Results were as follows:

Rugby
Union vs Charlie Hofmeyer lost 12 – 28
Union vs Andrew Rabie won 43-0

Hockey
Union vs VG won 1 -0
Union vs Paarl Gim Inv won 2 – 0
Union vs Settlers won 3 – 0
Union vs Kingsridge lost 3 – 4
Brandwag withdrew against Union

Union Invitation vs Cradock won 1 – 0
Union Invitation vs Merrifield lost 2 – 3
Union Invitation vs Brandwag won 1 – 0
Union Invitation vs Stirling lost 0 – 4
Union Invitation vs Nico Malan lost 0 -2

Academic, Bulletin, Student Life

RCL Training – Global Leadership Consultants

On 13 March 2019 the RCL had a training session with Global Leadership Consultants.

There are not many things that warm the heart of an educator more than when a past pupil ploughs back into the very community which shaped him or her. This was what could be sensed when Luphumlo Joka conducted training with the Representative Council for Learners of Union High School at Profcon yesterday.

The vision of Global Leadership Consultants is to build authentic leaders to effectively change society generationally. The values of the company, excellence, integrity, passion, discipline and stewardship was really the golden thread throughout the session.

Global Leadership Consultants was officially started in 2015 by founder Luphumlo Joka whilst he was studying Law at Nelson Mandela University. GLC was birthed out of genuine love and passion for the development of organizations and high performance individuals.

The team specializes in strategic management and leadership development and business leadership support. Their competitive advantage is in their new approach to leadership development birthed by our young innovative team of professionals.

A fun-filled, jam-packed half day session addressing topics like the purpose of leaders, the ultimate leader-shift and the duty of authentic leadership was enjoyed by fifteen excited leaders. We are looking forward to see our leaders finding their purpose and expanding their sphere of influence even further.

We are grateful to Global Leadership Consultants for this invaluable experience which our Representative Council of Learners thoroughly enjoyed!

Bulletin

Spar Hockey Challenge

The Spar Hockey festival took place at Union in festive, warm conditions today and much fun was had by all! We are proud of our girls who made it to the final, but were unfortunately beaten 0-3 by a polished DSG team. Thank you Spar and our sport’s department who made this such an enjoyable day.

Bulletin, Cultural

Annual production: The Jungle Book

“I believe arts education in music, theater, dance and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. Children have an enthusiasm for life, a spark of creativity, and vivid imaginations that need training – training that prepares them to become confident young men and women.” (Richard Riley)

In Union’s ongoing bid to educate the whole child, the Middle School staged a brilliant production of ‘The Jungle B…ook’ last week, and on Friday night the audience was thrilled by excellent acting, singing and dancing that filled the packed hall! With increasing demands on teachers to complete the syllabus in very little time, we commend the learners, staff and parents for all that they did to make the production such a success.

One only has to look at the faces in this post to see how our young learners embraced and relished in the roles they performed. It is wonderful to know that such talent is nurtured in our learners. Union is so grateful for the incredible vision of Mrs Avrille Putter who produced this excellent show, backed up by Mrs Sanette Brink, the staff, and of course our wonderful thespians without whom, this would never have happened!