By Tom Wark in Sydney

A school has been forced to close after a former student allegedly set its front office on fire, less than 24 hours before students were due to return for term three.

Police have charged a 17-year-old boy with arson, breaking and entering, as well as disseminating footage of the alleged offence, known as “post and boast”.

At about 7.10pm on Monday, emergency services were called to Cowra High School, in the NSW central west, after reports of a fire, police say.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze, which was confined to the school’s administration block, but the building was badly damaged in the inferno.

Other buildings at the school sustained smoke damage but no one was injured in the fire, according to police.

Police arrested the 17-year-old at a home in Cowra at about 10pm the same evening after he allegedly filmed himself setting the fire alight and uploaded the footage to social media.

The arrested boy is believed to be an ex-student at the school, police say.

He was refused bail to appear before Parramatta Children’s Court on Tuesday.

Cowra High School will not be open to students on what should have been the first day of term three, the school said in a post to parents on its Facebook page on Monday night.

“The safety of our school community is our number one priority and for this reason our school will revert to learning from home tomorrow for all students,” the post said.

“Students will not be able to access the school site Tuesday.”

Monday’s fire is the second at a major regional high school in NSW in the past year after Deniliquin High School in the Riverina was targeted in November.

Two boys were charged after 30 classrooms were destroyed in the Deniliquin blaze, forcing a major rebuild and disrupted learning for about 500 students.

”Post and boast” laws were introduced in 2024 to target performance crime by imposing a maximum two-year jail term but critics say there is no evidence harsher penalties stop the conduct.

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.