Category: Student Life

Union’s learner leaders, Khanya Butshingi, Peter Watermeyer, Jenna McNaughton and Zintle Maki, were exceptional in delivering their items on the programme and Inge van Rooyen (Hoër Volkskool’s Deputy Headgirl), as well as Wayne Lomberg (Spandau Secondary School’s Headboy), deserve special mention for their contribution to the evening and their well-wishes conveyed to Union.

Mrs. Anziske Kayster, who holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Heritage, is registered as a Doctoral candidate at Stellenbosch University and currently serves as the Director of the Graaff-Reinet Museum, then addressed all those present on ‘Women in Leadership’.

The humorous presentation of her speech and her tips on developing yourself as a woman in leadership were well-received.

Old Unionite and Chartered Accountant, Mr. Gerrar Maya, who was recently appointed as the Internal Audit Manager at the Dr. Beyers Naudé Local Municipality, then grabbed everyone’s attention with a very strong and engaging speech on ‘Youth in Leadership’. He, once again, proved himself a most inspirational speaker.

Overall, the evening – held on the brink of Interschools for four of the five schools present – was a great success, with leaders – both young and old – committing themselves to do everything in their power to ensure that, in the end, team ‘Graaff-Reinet’ emerges as the winner!

Thanks are extended to all the learners who came out, danced and enjoyed the evening.

As can be seen by the high levels of enjoyment on display by the learners in these photos, this learner-led event was well planned and enjoyed by all those who attended.

Noah will reside in Arthur Kingwill House for the next couple of weeks and will return to Denmark on Monday, 12 August.

Union is glad to welcome him back to campus and hopes he enjoys his time here.

Union was recently very impressed with the honesty and integrity shown by Grade 9 learner, Mihan Campbell.  Mihan happened upon a phone that had been lost by its owner during a sports day at Union.  Mihan immediately took steps to ensure that the expensive smartphone was returned to its owner by turning it in to the school’s headmaster.

Well done, Mihan!

At Union, we firmly believe that good deeds should be recognized, it’s not every day the world shows you honesty and integrity, and actions such as these deserve to be recognised by the community.

“While it can be bought, this is an easy and cheap way to create a pencil sharpener that you can use at your desk without having to walk to the wastebasket every time you need to sharpen a pencil,” says Zack.

Maybe one day Zack will develop a world-changing new invention, who knows?

All we can say is that at Union, we’re big fans of innovation in all its forms, and we just love it when our learners think out of the box to create something inspired!

Today we received these photos from Christo Pietersen accompanied by the comment, “Impressed with the well-behaved boys”.

As the most effective approach to instilling good manners in a child is by being an example of proper etiquette yourself, we’d like to thank the exceptional parents of the Union schools as well as the members of staff and, in fact, the Union community as a whole for setting the example and for showing our learners the value of proper etiquette.

Most importantly we’d like to thank the learners for being such splendid ambassadors for our school!

Cultivating good manners takes time, but the rewards of respectful, well-behaved learners are truly endless.

At first, a number of awareness campaigns were undertaken, including the introduction of a Bully-Bin to the school’s campus.  Since then -, supported by an effective anti-bullying policy – the focus has been on creating a safe and positive environment for the learners in the classrooms and on the school grounds with everyone working together to create a climate where bullying is not acceptable.

On Wednesday, 1 May, Old Unionite Ingrid Kingwill joined forces with Union in this initiative by training 13 peer counsellors to support the emotional and academic wellbeing of fellow learners.  This has been implemented as a support scheme to reduce bullying and as a means of reducing the psychological effects thereof on learners.

Union’s sincere gratitude is extended to Ingrid for her willingness to invest in the wellbeing of the school.

All peer counsellors who participated in the training found it an enriching experience and we have no doubt that this project will grow from strength to strength.

This event – the first of its kind to be held by the schools ever – will hopefully pave the way for regular engagements of this nature in future.

The evening started with an inspirational message on the important distinctions between managing and leading people delivered by pastor Dolan Cochrane. He shared some powerful information about the influence of leaders with the group, keeping the learners thoroughly engaged throughout the whole session.

Union’s Head Boy, Peter Watermeyer, then shared the idea behind the evening with all those present, and in so doing, portrayed true leadership as defined by John Quincy Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”.

Zintle Maki, head prefect of Union’s Herby Arnott House, then led various activities in a very professional manner.

This evening was not only a celebration of youth leadership but also served as an amazing team building opportunity.

Thanks are extended to all the leaders and the educators who accompanied them for participating in the evening’s programme.