By Thomas House | Posted: Monday September 12, 2022
Term 3 has seen Thomas House welcome both Steve Blair and Christine Murdoch into their new roles as Director and Residential Manager.
Both Steve and Christine are not new to Thomas House so the transition has been a relatively smooth one. They both enjoy their new roles and are implementing small changes as they settle in. It’s been great to meet parents and be warmly welcomed by so many. We hosted our Annual Parents Dinner night on 12th August which is always a great night for both staff and the parents.
Jannes Kochan and Julian Martin our two Gap Students from Germany joined us at the start of term 3 and have both merged into the Hostel life with ease. They certainly have been a wonderful addition to Thomas House, great with the boarders and more than happy to assist wherever required. It’s great to have our gappers back at Thomas House. Now that the borders are open we have also welcomed two Japanese boys, year 10 and year 11. Bringing diversity and different cultural awareness to our boarders lives.
Sports – sports is a major part of our boarders lives, term 3 has been busy with Rugby, Hockey, Soccer and tournaments along with the Waitaki Exchange and our annual tradition of the Great Speedy Oil Assembly tale, many of our boarders have done well making it into the finals for Rugby and Hockey, Sam Wilson of course representing NZ in Italy for rowing, Ryan Watt in the North Island for Tennis. Although I would have to say it’s probably not a good time to talk to Steve about his coaching of the Colts team.
Renovations
The Comm Room is now finished and looking sharp, the boys have a new refurbished area for wet days, table tennis, an old retro arcade game machine and a place to hang after school. We hope to start the renovations on the upstairs Fraser Wing area in November that has been a staff flat/boarder flat but will now be transformed into new shower and toilet block for the Year 10 boys, giving Year 9 and Year 10’s their own space. We also will be concreting the pathways around the Year 13 Units and over to Lewis Wing.
