Bentley Park College

Bentley Park College is a co-educational, state run school located in Bentley Park, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Historical Development The road the school is located on was built in 1885 and was named after the McLaughlin family, farmers of the area.

In 1997 (term 4), the school opened as a primary school in Centenary Park called "Edmonton State School", after a nearby town. In 1998, it was renamed "Bentley Park College" with commencement in operation as a P–7 school, a corresponding name change which was subsequently reflected in the suburb of "Centenary Park", which was renamed "Bentley Park". In 1999 it was decided to expand it to incorporate secondary schools, with the middle school opening in 2001 and the first Year 12 students graduating in 2004. The school currently educates students from preschool to 12th grade.

In 2011, the school's original motto, "Achieving Tomorrow's Visions Today" was replaced with its current motto of "Aspire, Learn, Achieve".

Infrastructure Medical Precinct

In 2022, Bentley Park College launched a $1.4m medical precinct, allowing High school students throughout Cairns to fast track their career in health care.

Sports On 25 February 2019, Bentley Park College launched a $1.65 million sport hall upgrade, funded under the Queensland Government's $200 million Advancing Schools initiative, an external covered multi-purpose court, new louvre systems, covered entrances, and a new kinesiology laboratory, with space for a full class of students, laptops and a fully equipped gym.

Students

Bentley Original

A "Bentley Original" is a term coined for a student who attended Bentley Park College from Preschool, Prep Year or Year 1 until their Year 12 Graduation. The terms was coined by a group of Year 11 Bentley Park College students in 2010 ("2012 Bentley Originals"), a year after the graduation of the initial students who met the "Bentley Originals" requirement, i.e. those beginning Preschool in 1998, or Year 1 in 1999, and graduating in 2009.

Years

The school first opened its doors to preschool age students in 1997. In 1998, it commenced operation as a P-7 school.

On 17 September 2001, Middle School specialist and general learning classrooms, Middle and Senior School Library, College Administration building and Middle and Senior School Canteen were officially opened. In 2001, The school began accepting middle school students (grades 6–9). In 2002, senior school students (grades 10–12). In 2003–2004, senior school students moved into their own building apart from the middle school students. The first cohort of Year 12s graduated in 2004.

In 2011, the middle school was removed paving the way for Year 7 to transition into high school ahead of other schools in the area, with the former 'Junior School' (Years P-5), 'Middle School' (Years 6–9) and 'Senior School' (Years 10–12) being merged into two sectors: P-6 and 7-12

In 2015, Anna Bligh's state-wide "Flying Start" program was officially implemented to align Queensland with the other states by transferring Year 7 into the high school system, As a result, Bentley Park College moved its Year 7 into the high school domain in 2015.

This produced the school in its current form, teaching the initial Prep Year to final Year 12 (P–12).

Student enrolments

In 2023, Bentley Park College was reported to have a maximum student enrolment capacity of 2,270 students. The 2023, limit on students entering the Prep in any given year was 150 students in 6 classrooms, which was only to be exceeded if there were more than 150 students enrolling from within the catchment area.

In 2005, there were approximately 1800 students enrolled in the school, 400 of which were senior school students. The trend in school enrolments (August figures) has been:-

+ Student enrolment trends Year Year levels Gender Total Ref Prep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Boys Girls 2009 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 902 782 1,684 2010 - - - - - - - - - - - - -8997821,681 2011 - - - - - - - - - - - - -8867691,655 2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 824 744 1,568 2013 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 811 705 1,516 2014 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 775 655 1,430 2015 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 798 680 1,478 2016 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 779 671 1,450 2017 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 814 722 1,536 2018 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 805 727 1,532 2019 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 811 736 1,547 2020 71 64 72 86 97 114 88 206 202 204 172 149 106 873 758 1,631 2021 81 76 71 75 86 106 113 201 195 205 200 140 120 887 782 1,669 2022 75 77 84 79 71 96 111 222 194 190 210 154 97 888 772 1,660 2023 74 81 72 78 83 84 106 250 232 200 188 156 130 925 809 1,734 2024 70 71 80 77 80 97 88 251 244 220 195 147 103 922 801 1,723 2025 TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA 935 836 1,771 2026 TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA

Cultural Diversity

Traditional Land

The school is located on Gimuy Walubarra Yidinji people's traditional Country.

Multiculturalism

The recent trends in multicultural composition been:

+ Student enrolment trendsYearIndigenousLBOTERef 2014 29 29 2015 31 32 2016 30 32 2017 33 35 2018 35 36 2019 37 37 2020 38 39 2021 38 39 2022 40 41 2023 41 42 2024 41 41 2025 TBA TBA

Sports

Houses

The school's four sports houses are named after local reefs, each with its own sea creature mascot:

+ Sports HousesHouse NameReefColourMascotRef Arlington Arlington Reef Blue Marlins Euston Euston Reef Yellow Tiger Sharks Onyx Onyx Reef Red Octopuses Upolu Upolu Reef Green Crocodiles

Notable alumni

The following are notable alumni of the school:

+ Notable alumni in sport Name Graduation Year Sport Achievements Ref Chris Wright 2018 Swimmer Competed for Australia at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and four World Championships. In 2009, Chris broke the Australian record for the men's short course 200m Butterfly.

Bentley Park College

Bron en licentie