Congratulations to Zara, Tsireletso and Megan. Read more about their hobbies on our FB page.
Colourful fun was had by all today as the Grade 10 fundraising committee organised a Colour Splash in the heat at the end of the day!
The 16th Interschools Athletics Meeting against Hoёr Volkskool, was held on Wednesday, 17 October at Hoёr Volkskool. It was a cool, windy afternoon, but that did not stop the Union team of taking part in big numbers and breaking quite a few records.
Union received 17 first places, 24 second places and 26 third places. First places were awarded to the following learners:
O Ngwenya 100 m Boys u15 11,51 s
E Mitchell High Jump Girls u15 1,4 m
M Green High Jump Girls u16 1,4 m
L Theron 200 m Girls u16 29,74 s
J Duba 200 m Boys u16 24,08 s
B Amsterdam Long Jump Boys u16 5,84 m
J McNaughton 800 m Girls u17 2:57,2 s
M Carelse 400 m Boys u17 56,17 s
L McNaughton Shotput Boys u17 11,14 m
R Sparks Discus Girls u19 19,18 m
I Ndamane 400 m Boys u19 54,77 s
Sisipho Arnolds came first in three events:
S Arnolds 100 m Boys u14 12, 2 s
S Arnolds 200 m Boys u14 25,42 s
S Arnolds Long Jump Boys u14 5,24 m
The following learners broke records:
L Finca 400 m Boys u14 1:02,57 minutes
N Ngongama 200 m Boys u15 23,39 s
I Ndamane 800 m Boys u19 2:08,35 minutes
The u19 boys, 100 m race was a nerve wrecking race with Soyama Mbobi in a very close second place.
The Union Team, however, stole the lime light, with winning the final event of the day, the u19 boys 4x 100 m relay. It is a race that will be remembered in the years to come!
All the athletes must be congratulated on their good performance, participation and sportsmanship. There is still just “One team, one Union”….
What a privilege it was to spend time with this group of kind, caring and enthusiastic girls! We looked at wetlands, river health, caught a few crabs in a river, climbed a few fences, fell a few times, had a moonlit swim in a Saltwater pool, learned about an outdoor mechanical fridge, learned about baling lucern and cooled down whilst learning about central irrigation pivots. Best weekend ever!
Union attended the first B-Age gala of the swimming season on Saturday
27 October, with 15 swimmers competing. Even though the gala occurred
much sooner in the term than usual, our swimmers did very well by …
recording good times for the start of the season. It was great to see so
many entries and we’re hoping even more senior swimmers will compete as
the season progresses, so that we can be well represented at the Top 8
Gala next year.
On Saturday morning the top 8 Junior girls travelled to Port Elizabeth to play tennis against Collegiate.
Despite losing to Collegiate there was some excellent tennis played with many games going to deuce/add and some matches being decided by a tie breaker.
U13A Cricket vs Summerwood
This weekend our u13 cricket team played two matches against Summerwood from Port Elizabeth. On both occations our boys played well, but struggled to show disspline when bowling and fielding. This allowed our opponents to score freely and ultimately kept us out of the game. A total of 97 extras were bowled and 7 catches dropped in two days.
Friday: Union lost by 44 runs.…
Saturday: Union lost by 71 runs.
Congratulations to Brent Hesselink for scoring 51 in this matches against Summerwood today.
On Wednesday our U/13 boys played an intense cricket match against Laer Volkskool. In blistering heat the Union boys were sent in to bowl and through some laziness in the field allowed Volkskool to reach 129 after 20 overs. The Union team regathered after the break and hit back by putting Volkskool’s bowlers under pressure. Union managed to score freely and reached their target in the 16th over. Winning by 6 wickets.
Any school is a huge ‘machine’ with many interlocking cogs and mechanisms which keep it running smoothly. With the Union brand consisting of three schools under one banner – namely Union Pre-School, Union Prep School and Union High School – this amounts to a phenomenal number of people who work both at the coal face and behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly. With each school having its own staff and governing bodies and other entities including the Old Unionite’s Association and the Development Trust, it is easy for each committee to lose sight of the roles, ideals, challenges and achievements of the other.
It was with this in mind that it was decided to hold a joint meeting of all these entities during which a spokesperson from each had the opportunity to discuss the following: how each body operates; their vision; their marketing strategies; their interdependency and co-operation with other sectors; their biggest challenges and recent achievements. It was enlightening and heartening to hear what each sector had to say, and just how passionate, professional, dedicated and committed this group of people are to the Union brand.
Four hours flew by as ideas were tossed around, concerns were voiced, decisions were made and opinions expressed – but the overriding feeling about the gathering was the positive energy that is palpable at Union and how, with communication, co-operation and unity, this wonderful school can continue to grow from strength to strength in its bid to become one of the best schools in the country.
Photo: Front row left to right: John Crankshaw (OUA), Wilmari Spence (High school SGB), Jacqui Marais (Pre and Prep School SGB), Derek Light (Trust), Jenna McNaughton (Union High SGB), Doug Stern (Trust), Lionel de la Harpe (Trust), Kevin Watermeyer (High School SGB, Trust, OUA), (Middle rows) Floris Steenkamp (Prep School SGB), Joanne McNaughton (High School SGB), Bronwen Langmead (High School SGB), Lyn Rose-Innes (High School SGB), Leona Rich (Prep School SGB), Amy Louise Swart (High School SGB), Dianne Murray (Pre School SGB), Yvette Cloete (High School SGB), Abigail Gedult (High School SGB), David Langmead (High School SGB), William Pringle (High School SGB)
(Back row) Arland Stanley (Trust), Bronwen Kingwill (Prep School SGB), Jennifer Hope (Prep School SGB, Trust), Dolan Cochrane (Prep School SGB), Mark Hudson (Prep School SGB), George Hope (Prep School SGB), Karin Marais (Trust), Stephen Bezuidenhout (Prep, High School SGB), Anje Vorster (Pre School SGB), Bruce Maree (OUA), Sue Olivier (Pre School SGB), David Stern (OUA), Peter Watermeyer (High School SGB), Donald Kingwill (High School SGB).
We congratulate the following Union cricketers for being selected for the Eastern Province U/17 Inland Team, who will be attending the National Week Tournament in Kimberley from 10 to 14 December.
Jayden Brotherton, Luke McNaughton, Bowen Langmead (Captain), Kyle-Luke du Preez, Brett Amsterdam, Lihle Mxhunyelwa and Trevor Moos