Nightcliff Middle School is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

state school situated between Nightcliff Road, Aralia Street and Ryland Road, in the northern Darwin suburb of Rapid Creek, Northern Territory,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

History

The school was named after the adjacent suburb of

Nightcliff Nightcliff is a northern suburb of the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. History Although the origin of the name Nightcliff has always been surrounded by conjecture and controversy, the naming can be tracked back to 8 September ...

.Barter, Leith (1994, p. 47). From Wartime Camp to Garden Suburb: A Short History of Nightcliff and Rapid Creek. Historical Society of the Northern Territory. In the mid 1960s, planning had commenced for a high school to serve the region, but it was not until 8 July 1970 that Nightcliff High School was officially opened. 300 students, who had been temporarily housed in demountables at Darwin High School, transferred immediately to the new buildings. Following

Cyclone Tracy Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from 24 to 26 December 1974. The small, developing easterly storm had been observed passing clear of the city initially, but then turned t ...

, the new school, which had survived the devastation better than most buildings, was immediately pressed into service as an evacuation centre, then becoming a

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

for workers involved in the temporary repair of

essential services Essential services may refer to a class of occupations that have been legislated by a government to have special restrictions in regard to labour actions such as not being allowed to strike. The International Labour Office, a United Nations age ...

. Following Cyclone Tracy, students of the school were temporarily enrolled to attend Casuarina High School situated approximately 8 kilometres away. The school was reopened in 1975 with classes starting at 7am to avoid heat as the air conditioning was not functioning. After a successful "Lighthouse" program, in 2007, Nightcliff began transitioning to a Middle School and retained Years 8 and 9.

Present day

In 2008, Nightcliff High School became a middle school for students in Years 7 to 9 and as a result was renamed Nightcliff Middle School.Department of Employment Education and Training (2007). Middle Years: Darwin & Northern Suburbs. Retrieved online (11 November 2007). http://www.middleyears.nt.gov.au/your-school/darwin/index.shtml

Sports

The school caters for a wide range of sport including;

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Aussie rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

. Nightcliff Middle School is also the home of the Nightcliff Tigers Baseball Club.

References and notes

External links

Nightcliff Baseball Club

Official site
{{Use dmy dates, date=December 2020 Public high schools in Darwin, Northern Territory 1970 establishments in Australia Educational institutions established in 1970