This year was a good one, we had the same old faces and welcomed some new faces to our group, both new to the school and from other mentor classes. We welcomed two new faces to St Thomas, Israel, and Elijah and from another mentor class we luckily picked up Fernando and Lachlan.

The year has been a busy one and a successful one for the lads of RIAS. The year started well as we got stuck into school life and started off with swimming sports and athletics, with all the lads getting stuck in and then new ones getting a taste of the way we do things here at St Thomas.

As a class we have had many successes in many different fields and disciplines. In the class Basketball is a hugely popular sport, we have had many class matches, which always ended with some good stories and banter, usually about who got dunked on or posturized by whom. Many of the class play basketball and many making A teams and others doing well and improving, like Jackson, Carmine and Tiaki. Jack also had a hugely successful year with his basketball refereeing, with him being invited to referee some prestigious tournaments and getting some crucial games at these.

Harrison has once again been very successful in swimming; he seems to be getting faster each year and this is in no small part down to his massive commitment and dedication to his training. Henry Thomson has also enjoyed some continued success with the schools EPRO8 team who made it to the final and had the University of Canterbury headhunting him unaware he was only year 12!

In the class rugby has been another hugely popular sport, with many boys playing this also, like Xavier and Brandon who battled hard throughout the season and will be looking to have a full season next year to show his abilities, Israel got to make his debut this season for the school in the under 12’s and Dae’zjaan got player of the year for the mighty under 15 red team. Elijah Filipo and his U14A team won their final and was a crucial member of the Riccarton knights U14 who won their grand final and went through their season undefeated. When asked about his season, Henry Pratt stated that he was selected for the New Zealand secondary school team, but he must have been injured as we didn’t catch him in the games against Australia.

In the classroom many of the class have been working well gaining valuable credits and showing plenty of promise. With Lachlan, Henry Thomson and Fernando doing very well at level two, with many Excellences in varied subjects such as design, photography, and science to name a few.

Many of the class have been luckily enough to travel and have had some pretty cool experiences, some with sports teams and others with family. Marcus was luckily enough to meet the president of Slovenia on his travels. When he wasn’t meeting presidents, he still had time to go to Zones for shotput and make great strides with his basketball. Sam Martin is one who goes under the radar had a great year in his powerboat racing and Jaylem has shown good maturity and a great approach to his job outside of school.

So, all in all from such a varied bunch of lads, with many different personalities, interests and approaches to life it all seems to work and the class have gelled and do get along, banter and all.