Simon Coe the new principal for Napier Boys’ High School

A former Napier Boys’ High School science teacher is returning to the school as the new principal.

Simon Coe, currently rector at surprise 2023 national secondary schools rugby 1st XV champion campus Southland Boys’ High School, will replace Jarred Williams, who departed at the end of Term 1 to become principal of Hamilton BHS after just three years in Hawke’s Bay.

Former Napier Boys' High School teacher Simon Coe who returns to Hawke's Bay as the school's new principal. Photo / Supplied

From England, Coe started his New Zealand teaching experience at Napier BHS in 2006, and spent nine years at the school, before becoming a deputy principal at Whanganui Collegiate, and has been in Southland since mid-2017, during which he had to front up for the school amid the death of four students in a crash in 2022.

Announcing the appointment of the 15th principal in the 152 years of Hawke’s Bay’s biggest school, board chair James Mear said Coe had had a “successful tenure” at Southland BHS, most notably raising academic outcomes for boys across all levels of NCEA and supporting the school’s rugby programme.

Coe said he is “very excited” to be able to return to Napier.

“I understand the special place that boys’ schools have in NZ and have always thought it a privilege to work in one,” he said.

“To be able to be part of guiding a young man through his high school journey and onwards to become a successful member of the community and a future leader is very fulfilling.”

Coe’s appointment is the latest of a series of changes among principals at Hawke’s Bay high schools this year, including that of Rathkeale College, Masterton, deputy and former Central Hawke’s Bay College and Lindisfarne College teacher Mason Summerfield to Hastings BHS.

Other new arrivals are Jesse Te Weehi, who, after 20 years at Fraser High School, Hamilton, has started this term at co-educational Napier school Tamatea High School, succeeding Robin Fabish, the principal since 2015, and from the start of Term 3 that of Nicole Billante as principal of girls’ school Iona College, Havelock North, from Christ’s College, Christchurch.