Rules and policies are in place to make sure your child remains safe and well at school.
Visit the NSW Department of Education’s policy library for all current operational policies.
Our school uses the department's School Community Charter to ensure all of our communication is collaborative and respectful.
Attendance and absences
Students must attend school regularly so they can achieve their educational best and increase their career and life options.
In NSW, all children from the age of 6 are legally required to attend school or be registered for home schooling through the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). All students must complete Year 10, or its equivalent.
Young people below the age of 17 who have completed Year 10 must be:
in school, or registered for home schooling
in approved education or training, such as a traineeship, apprenticeship or TAFE
in full-time paid employment (average 25 hours a week)
in a combination of work, education and/or training (average of 25 hours a week combined).
Students 17 years and over who are enrolled in school must attend school regularly to meet HSC course requirements.
As a parent or carer, you are responsible for ensuring your child attends school every day when they are of compulsory school age. You must explain all absences to the school within 7 days.
For more information about compulsory school attendance, visit:
School frameworks (school rules)
As well as following the department’s operational policies, we have developed frameworks for our students in line with our school’s values and commitments.
School Behaviour Support and Management Plan
Chatham High School strives to provide quality teaching and active learning in a supportive environment where every student is known, valued and cared for. We aim to develop a shared responsibility for learning across our diverse community by establishing a school culture that is welcoming, built upon high expectations.
The principles of positive behaviour support, trauma-informed practice, inclusive practice, and social emotional learning underpin our daily practice. High expectations for student behaviour are established and maintained through effective role modelling, explicit teaching, and planned responses.
Our processes are founded on the idea that students must learn to take responsibility for their own actions and to ensure all staff respond to these challenges consistently to support students to acknowledge harm and learn from their behaviour.
Based on the DoE’s policies, the Student Behaviour Support and Management Plan provides a strategic, whole school approach that incorporates a multi-tiered care continuum to support all students, including a focus on prevention, early intervention, targeted and individual interventions. Effective strategies are incorporated to model, explicitly teach, recognise and reinforce positive, inclusive and safe behaviours while also providing strategies to identify, prevent and respond to disruptive behaviour, including bullying and cyber bullying.
