The Story of Middle School

Northside was a leader in the story of Middle Schooling in Queensland.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Education Queensland moved Year Seven from Primary to Secondary School - to be known as Junior Secondary. It was to be a phase of education for Years 7, 8, and 9 with a focus on age-appropriate education and support; to ensure the bridge between primary and secondary schooling was safe, strong and consistent.

By this time, NCC Middle School was well established.

At Northside, as most people would know, Secondary schooling started in 1993 with a solitary Year 8 class. Each year, another year was added until Year 12 was reached in 1997.

Year Seven remained part of Primary School.

During the next few years, as the College leadership prayerfully considered the transition from Primary to Secondary schooling and the age group of the students, the idea of Middle School was birthed. What if the young teens could be given a different learning experience as they made their journey through puberty? What would this look like?

1999 was declared a trial year with Mr Rob Burgess and Mrs Yve Rutch as Coordinators.

The students were housed in the B Block Year Seven classrooms and the top floor of C Block and the teachers went to them. In that year’s Yearbook, the Year 7 class photos were included in the Primary section with Mr Peter Schmidhauser, Mrs Lorraine Verhoeven and Mrs Carolyn Cutforth. Mrs Rutch wrote the report on the Year 7 trip to Canberra and this too was in the Primary section. Mrs Long taught SOSE (Study of Society and Environment) and the students ran their own election campaign in the weeks leading up to the Canberra trip. They conducted their own elections – using the preferential system!

Year 7 was, however, included in the Secondary Graduation Awards night that year.

In preparation for 2000, Mr Averill called for teachers who would be prepared to commit to teaching Year 7 exclusively and the call was answered by Mrs Long, Mr McClenaghan and Mr Bell. These three teachers are pictured in the photos for 2000 when they are with the Secondary photos in the Yearbook.

In 2000, the Year Sevens (and Eights) moved from B Block to be separate from Primary School. They used the area underneath the auditorium and demountable buildings appeared behind the church in what is now the carpark for Next Steps Kindy and Nexus Care. The class photos that year were in the Secondary section, most of the students were in Secondary uniforms and the teachers were Mr Peter McClenaghan, Mrs Fiona Long) and Mr Laurie Bell. The Canberra trip changed to being part of the Secondary program.

For the first time, the Staff List showed ‘Middle School and Senior Teachers’ and Mr Michael Long became the first Head of Middle School.

The concept of Middle Schooling was proclaimed to be a success. It was here to stay and continued to grow and mature as the years passed.

Gender Streaming in certain years was explored and adopted as were teaching/learning styles and curriculum innovations for the specific age groups.

Mr Long was Head of Middle School for four years from 2000. In 2004, Mr Bob Guthrie acted as Head then, for two years, Mr Paul Sterling and Mr Michael Wilkinson were Middle School Coordinators with separate areas of responsibility.

In 2007, Mr Sterling was appointed Head of Middle School and Mr Laurie Bell was appointed Middle School Coordinator. This leadership was in place until 2014 when Mr Sterling moved to Bundaberg to accept a Principal position and the role was filled by Mrs Fiona Long, who remains until the present. Mr Bell stayed as Coordinator until, in a restructure at the end of 2019, he commenced his current role as Head of Pastoral Care.

NCC Middle School has gone from strength to strength during those years. Staff and students were happy in 2000 to see the new Middle School buildings under construction and were delighted to move in the following year. F Block, then G Block became a reality, the courtyard was completed and the Middle School Precinct became a reality. Richness of programs and culture grew, student leadership was put in place, separate chapels began and their identity as a School was solidified.

It would be difficult now to imagine the College without Junior, Middle and Senior Schools. There are three separate parts, each with its own distinctive that, together, form the whole.

Note: It would be impractical to include photos for the entire history of Middle School so they are mostly drawn from the early years.