Acting College Principal
I have accepted a 10-week position as the Acting Supervisor for Partnership Initiative Schools from Monday 26 August until Friday 15 November. The Bentley Park College Acting Principal position went to an external Expression of Interest process, run by Far North Queensland Region.
I'm pleased to announce that Sue Bow, who is currently the Head of School Primary, will be Acting College Principal for three weeks until the end of this term. For the first seven weeks of next term, until Friday 15 November, Kathryn Todd, who is currently the Principal of Woree State High School, will be Acting College Principal.
I look forward to returning to farewell our current Year 12 students on their Graduation day on Friday 15 November, and returning to the College Principal role for the last four weeks of 2024 and beyond.
Yours sincerely
Bruce Houghton
College Principal
13/8/24
Cyberbullying, Sexting and keeping your kids safe online
Our kids are increasingly connected to their devices and the internet to an extent that most adults don't understand. They are using apps, accessing material and communicating with others in ways that can entertain, educate and support them, but this access also has the capacity to cause them harm.
What can parents/carers do?
- Educate ourselves as to risks and what we can do to safeguard our children and teens. These include parental controls, managing gaming and knowing what apps to allow and restrict. https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents is a fantastic source of information to support parents/carers for these and other issues.
- Know who your children are connecting to online. Strangers can chat to children in games such as and even share photos and encourage children to connect with them by making in-app purchases for them. This link https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-topics/esafety-guide is a useful guide to the apps which your child/ teen could be using and to help you keep them safe, including adding parental controls to limit strangers interacting with your child, and for teenagers, stopping them accessing risky or harmful content.
- For teenagers, ensure that they know when online behaviours become illegal. Young people over 10 and under 18 can be investigated by the eSafety Commissioner, be charged by the police and go to court for what is posted online or shared with others. This includes photos, videos and posts about themselves or another person. It is illegal to share nude images of anyone under 18, even if a teen is sharing a photo of themselves. Once photos are shared, there is no control over how widely they might get shared.
- Cyberbullying can cause immense harm and is also illegal - it's a crime to use any internet app or message service to repeatedly harass or threaten someone or be offensive. Online bullying can happen on group chats on many different phone apps. Parents/carers can talk about safe and respectful behaviours online and encourage their children/ teens to talk to them if there is anything which worries them. It is not okay to feel unsafe or be mistreated by others. If the cyberbullying involves other students at school, and you believe that the school could help to deal with it, report it to school. You can also (or instead) report to the eSafety Commissioner using this link: https://www.esafety.gov.au/report . It is useful to save screenshots etc to help your report. Further information from the Queensland Police can be found here and further help and support here.
Bentley Park College seeks to promote safe environments for all our students. If you are concerned and require support and advice, please contact the College and we will coordinate the necessary support.
Bentley Park College has a legal responsibility to respond to and manage online incidents that impact on the school. This can include confiscation of a personal device, including a phone, that may contain evidence required for a police investigation. For more details on our policy for dealing with cyberbullying, please refer to page 34 of our Student Code of Conduct on our website.
Yours sincerely
Bruce Houghton
College Principal
25/03/2024
QParents and Consent Management
From Term 2 2024, Bentley Park College parents/carers will have the option of providing consent electronically for their students via QParents. Whilst QParents has been available for many years, this is a new function and will provide a simpler and more convenient process for parents/carers and staff. We will begin with excursion consent and will soon also include media, online services and student resource scheme consent.
QParents is a user-friendly portal that provides parents and carers with secure online access to information about their child's schooling, and is accessible via an app or web browser. It provides greater transparency with online access to your child's information, ease of viewing and updating your child's details, anytime, anywhere access on a smart phone, tablet or computer, access to the latest information in one centralised place, and improved administration efficiencies and reduced printing and mail-outs.
Once registered for QParents, parents/carers can access and manage information their child online, including:
- Consent Management – to provide consent for things like excursions
- Attendance - view and update records
- Finance - pay invoices, view outstanding payments and payment history
- Reporting - view past and present report cards
- Upcoming events
- Student timetables
Registering for QParents
The College sends out email invitations to parents/carers inviting you to register for QParents. You will then be able to register via the secure QParents website qparents.qld.edu.au using the unique invitation code contained in the email.
You will need each child's unique EQ ID and you must verify your identity by providing 100 points of ID (if you cannot verify your identity online, you should contact the College for assistance). Once you have registered, the College will review your registration and approve your account.
At least initially, hard copy excursion consent forms will also be generated and printed to be brought home by all students. As the intake of QParents increases at the College, only students whose parents/carers do not have QParents will bring paper excursion consent forms home.
Another major advantage of QParents is to provide parents/carers with instant electronic access to student report cards, so now is the perfect time to sign up ahead of Term 1 reports being distributed very soon.
We are looking forward to using QParents to improve communications with more parents and carers.
Yours sincerely
Bruce Houghton
College Principal