# Bentley Park College

Bentley Park College is a co-educational, state run school located in Bentley Park (Queensland, Australia). The school is within Cairns Regional Council's jurisdiction.

## 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". The school current 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.$^{:2}$
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 | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Year levels | Gender | Gender | Total | Ref |
| Year | Prep | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Boys | Girls | Total | Ref |
| 2009 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 902 | 782 | 1,684 | |
| 2010 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 899 | 782 | 1,681 | |
| 2011 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 886 | 769 | 1,655 | |
| 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 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | 922 | 801 | 1,723 | |
| 2025 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |

## 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. | |