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21 June 2018 Photo BackpagePix
KC the countrys best netballer
The impressive Khanyisa Chawane in action as the centre player of the Free State Crinums.
Khanyisa Chawane, centre player for the Free State Crinums and Kovsies netball teams, is officially the best netball player in the country. She was named Player of the Tournament at the conclusion of the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League (BFNPL) on Sunday (17 June 2018). It is the premier competition on the South African netball calendar. She also earned the award of Best Centre Court Player.

Khanyisa, or simply KC as she is known, was a consistent performer for the Crinums   earning three Player of the Match awards. Although she is the shortest player in the team she impressed with her speed and handling skills on the court.
 
The Free State Crinums, packed with Kovsie players, finished the competition in fourth position. 

The Crinums is a ‘de facto’ Kovsie sports team, with all 15 squad members currently completing a course at the university. All of them will be available to play in the University Sport South Africa (USSA) tournament that is taking place in the first week of July 2018 in Bloemfontein. 

The Crinums, who ended fifth last year after losing a number of key players from the 2016 team, were officially the youngest participating team with an average age of 21 years and five months by the start of the league last month.

News Archive

Communication Science lecturers walk away with Best Teachers Award
2015-11-26

The winners: Jolandi Bezuidenhout, Rentia Engelbrecht, Jamie-Lee Nortje with Prof Milagros Rivera (Head of Department of Communication Science).

Jolandi Bezuidenhout, Rentia Engelbrecht, and Jamie-Lee Nortje are the names behind the award-worthy A-Step programme. These lecturers in the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State (UFS) have been facilitating extra class for students in the extended programme since 2008. On 12 November 2015, they celebrated a major milestone when the programme received the Excellence in Teaching and Learning Innovation Award.

The annual awards are hosted by Dr Lis Lange Vice-Rector: Academic at the UFS, and administrated through the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

It was the first time that the Faculty of the Humanities had received the award. The lecturers were named the Best Teachers in the UFS, emerging in first place in the category: Student Engagement and Learning.

The A-Step sessions form part of a governmental programme dedicated to supporting students by offering diverse curriculum-related activities. Students attend two classes per week where they are equipped with language and life skills. As of 2015, the sessions were expanded to benefit not only the extended programme but all 788 students in Introduction to Verbal and Nonverbal Communication (KOM114).

“The activities are based on theoretical work we do in the mainstream classes,” explained Nortje. Primarily, the activities are meant to “help the student engage the work in a meaningful way so that they can understand it,” she said, which is why the sessions are designed in a fun and creative way.

The ‘Best Teachers’ organised and developed the A-Step sessions collectively and diligently over the years. The award, and the improved students’ academic performance, bears testimony to the effectiveness of their teaching style.

Marissa Grobbelaar, the Academic Staff and Development Project coordinator at the CTL, commended the lecturers’ efforts. Grobbelaar believes that “the way they approached their teaching and the passion which was evident in it,” was one of the reasons they deserved the award.

A former A-Step student, Rorisang Sekhasa, attested that, “the programme was very helpful because you get to have one-on-one sessions with your lecturer, and understand the work better. What was done in class is elaborated on in detail.”

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