We are pleased to welcome Mr Nev Gibbs to our Senior Leadership Team as Assistant Principal. Following Mrs Coup's departure to become Principal at Kaipara College, Mr Gibbs joins Mrs Catchpole in the Assistant Principal roles.

Mr Gibbs joined Waitākere College in 2009 as a geography and social studies teacher. Since then, he has filled several leadership roles in the school: TiC geography, Year 9 and Year 10 dean, Assistant HoD and HoD Te Ao Tangata. He has in recent years been focused on improving literacy within the school, completing his Master's on the topic of teaching writing in geography in 2023. This has led to running schoolwide development programmes in literacy, with a focus on teaching writing skills across the curriculum.

Mr Gibbs is a passionate practitioner of  Relationship-Based Learning, being an impact coach since 2019. In recent years, he has assisted Whaea Taryn Baker with embedding our Relationship-Based Learning kaupapa within the teaching staff through professional development and impact coaching. 

Mr Gibbs has helped steer geography and other senior subjects through two versions of NCEA, a curriculum refresh, led the department's engagement with Te Kawerau ā Maki, and helped create a local curriculum, as well as embedding the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories into the junior social studies course. Through these initiatives and others, he has managed to consistently raise results, grow subject numbers and the department itself, with the number of teachers in the department nearly doubling during his time in charge. In addition to this, he has coached junior rugby for most of his 18 years at the school.