St Thomas Aquinas School recently hosted a chess festival run by a new non-profit organization (NPO) called Jungle Rook Society.
Jungle Rook Society (JRS), started by Mr John Kirk and Ms Taylor Bekker in mid-2018, aims to build chess in Witbank schools, and to keep the sport competitive but child-friendly – especially for young and inexperienced children.
Mr Kirk, or “Grandad” as the children have dubbed him, has been involved with chess at St Thomas for more than 10 years.
He has been teaching the sport as a subject for the Grade R to three’s, and his teams have won many awards.
He also shares his knowledge with everyone else too.
“At JRS, we are targeting youngsters we want to nurture because chess is proven to be good for developing academics, especially Mathematics. This has been internationally recognized,” he said.
Festivals will be taking place every second month and the next event will be on March 9.
Interested parties are invited to visit Jungle Rook Society’s Facebook page for updates, or to contact Mr Kirk on 084 568 7468.
Going forward, the NPO is looking to be affiliated with Nkangala Chess as they attracted around 140 primary school entries for the last festival.
