Shailer Park State High School

The school derives its name from its location in the suburb of Shailer Park, named after a resident farming family, Francis and Catherine Shailer and their children, who arrived in the area in 1866,^[16] becoming a district in 1971,^[16] a sub-district of Slacks Creek in 1977,^[16] and eventually a suburb in 1991.^[16] The school was the first school to operate in Shailer Park,^[17] being established on 29 January 1980.^[4][5][6]

Since 2025,^[18] the school's motto, as featured on the school crest, is "Excellence in Learning and Life".^[3] This replaced the prior motto of "Achieve with Dignity",^[15] used up until 2024.^[19]

The school originally consisted of six buildings.^[8] In 1983, the school received a total of $711,541.94 in building and equipment grants; $625,850.48 for a "commerce block" and $85,691.46 for "manual arts – 2 drawing,"^[20] while in 2009, Shailer Park was one of 32 schools to take part in a welfare scheme.^[21]

When the school opened in 1980 it had a teaching staff of 8.^[8] As of 2024, the school has a teaching staff of 93 (Full-time equivalent: 86.8) and a non-teaching staff of 38 (Full-time equivalent of 31.6).^[11]

The parents and citizens committee was established by Kel H. Barnes with the establishment of the school in 1980.^[8]

The school council was established under the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld) on 1 August 2017.^[22]

In 1980, the school's first principal was Kel H. Barnes.^[23] As of 2025, the school's current principal is Megan Herbert.^[9] Recent principals have included:

Before this some of the noted principals included John Milne.^[34][15]

Until 2013, the school was teaching only year 8 to year 12.^[35]: 4 As part of a 2013 trial, some twenty Queensland secondary schools started catering for year 7 to align Queensland with the other states as part of an early implementation of the official state-wide launch of Anna Bligh's 2015 "Flying Start" program.^[36] Since 2014,^[35]: 3 Shailer Park State High School started catering for year 7 to year 12^[1][11]

When the school opened in 1980, there were 101 students initially enrolled.^[8] By 1991, there were 1,400 students enrolled.^[8] As of 2024, the school has an enrolment of 958 students,^[11] with a maximum student enrolment capacity of 1,385 students.^[13] The trend in school enrolments (August figures) has been:-

The recent trends in multicultural composition have been:

The school's four houses are named after historical figures from both the school's history and the history of the local area:^[8]

In June 2019, the school was placed in a lockdown and a 12-year-old student was arrested after stabbing a 13-year-old student from behind during a class change which resulted in a non life threatening injury.^{[59][60][61][62]}