School term dates 2026-27 and 2027-28, council by council
Is school open on a given day? Pick your council: the answer comes from its own calendar, not a national average.
119 calendars read on council websites · dates checked on · method · about
Most councils in England start the 2026-27 school year in the first days of September and take October half term 26 to 30 October 2026, but the calendar is not national: each local authority in England, Wales and Scotland sets the term dates of the schools it runs, and Northern Ireland works from common closure dates agreed by all school sectors. This site holds 119 of those calendars, every one read on the council's own website with the link and the date we read it, 111 of them with 2027-28 as well. Pick your council and a date: the checker tells you whether it is a school day, which holiday it falls in, how many days and school days remain before the next break, and how many school days are left in the year. Academies and voluntary aided schools can set other dates and every English school chooses some INSET days itself, so the school's own calendar has the last word.
The 2026-27 year, break by break
One line per break: the date most English councils chose, and how many picked another. The council pages give each calendar in full.
| Break 2026-27 | Most common date in England | Councils on it | Councils that differ |
|---|---|---|---|
| October half term | 26 to 30 October 2026 | 95 of 105 | 10 other dates |
| Christmas holidays | 21 December 2026 to 1 January 2027 | 96 of 105 | 9 other dates |
| February half term | 15 to 19 February 2027 | 102 of 105 | 3 other dates |
| Easter holidays | 26 March to 9 April 2027 | 93 of 105 | 12 other dates |
| May half term | 31 May to 4 June 2027 | 105 of 105 | none |
| Summer holidays | 22 July to 31 August 2027 | 32 of 99 | 67 other dates |
Bromley, Isle of Wight, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Surrey break for two weeks in October 2026, a change that families with children in two areas notice first.
At Easter, Hull, Leicester, Leicestershire, North Yorkshire, York, Leeds, Manchester and Salford and others move away from the most common two weeks.
Find your council
East Midlands
Derby · Derbyshire · Leicester · Leicestershire · Lincolnshire · North Northamptonshire · Nottingham · Nottinghamshire · West Northamptonshire
East of England
Bedford · Cambridgeshire · Central Bedfordshire · Essex · Hertfordshire · Luton · Norfolk · Peterborough · Southend-on-Sea · Suffolk · Thurrock
London
Barnet · Brent · Bromley · Croydon · Ealing · Enfield · Haringey · Hillingdon · Lambeth · Lewisham · Newham · Redbridge · Royal Greenwich · Southwark · Tower Hamlets · Waltham Forest · Wandsworth
North East
North West
Bolton · Cheshire East · Cheshire West and Chester · Cumberland · Lancashire · Liverpool · Manchester · Oldham · Rochdale · Salford · Sefton · Stockport · Trafford · Westmorland and Furness · Wigan · Wirral
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Aberdeenshire · Edinburgh · Fife · Glasgow · Highland · North Lanarkshire · South Lanarkshire
South East
Brighton and Hove · Buckinghamshire · East Sussex · Isle of Wight · Kent · Medway · Milton Keynes · Oxfordshire · Portsmouth · Reading · Southampton · Surrey · West Sussex · Wokingham
South West
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole · Bristol · Cornwall · Devon · Dorset · Gloucestershire · Plymouth · Somerset · Swindon · Wiltshire
Wales
Bridgend · Carmarthenshire · Flintshire · Neath Port Talbot · Rhondda Cynon Taf · Vale of Glamorgan
West Midlands
Birmingham · Coventry · Dudley · Sandwell · Shropshire · Solihull · Staffordshire · Stoke-on-Trent · Telford and Wrekin · Walsall · Warwickshire · Wolverhampton · Worcestershire
Not sure which council runs your schools? It is the one you pay council tax to, or for two-tier areas the county council rather than the district. GOV.UK finds it from a postcode on its term dates page.
Why your dates are not your neighbour's
England has no national school calendar. The Education Act gives the decision to whoever employs the staff: the local authority for community and voluntary controlled schools, the governing body for foundation and voluntary aided schools, the trust for an academy. Councils consult head teachers and unions, then publish a calendar one or two years ahead. Most land on the same weeks because they aim at the same things: a break around Easter, roughly six-week terms, and summer holidays that start in the third week of July.
They do not always land in the same place. A council may fix Easter as two weeks around Easter Sunday, or as the first two weeks of April whatever the date of Easter. One council starts the year on a Tuesday, its neighbour on a Thursday. Bromley, Isle of Wight, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Surrey have moved to a two-week October break. In Scotland the differences are wider: the summer holiday starts in late June, the October break lasts one or two weeks depending on the council, and many councils keep a September weekend and fix their own in-service days. Welsh councils set their dates too, harmonised under the Education (Wales) Act 2014, and Northern Ireland works from common closure dates around which each school builds its year.
That is why a single national list is wrong for part of the country every year. It is also why the school's own calendar matters: an academy trust can set dates across several councils, and every English school takes five training days that only it announces.
Two homes, two councils
Parents who live apart, grandparents who look after children in the holidays, and families whose children go to schools on either side of a council boundary can line up two calendars here: the tool below counts the weekdays when one child is off and the other in school, break by break.
Before you book a term-time trip
A day out of school without permission counts as unauthorised absence. In England the head teacher can grant leave only for exceptional circumstances, and since August 2024 a national framework sets the fine: £80 per parent and per child if paid within 21 days, £160 within 28, and a second notice within three years at £160. The school has to consider a notice once a pupil reaches 10 unauthorised sessions, five days, within 10 school weeks. Wales charges £60 or £120. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no fixed penalty notice, but a holiday is still recorded as unauthorised. The fine calculator works out the amount for your family.
Every guide
How to read the dates on this site
Each council page shows the two school years as a list of terms and breaks, a strip with every day of the year coloured by the engine, and the bank holidays that fall inside term. "Weekdays" counts Monday to Friday, including bank holidays inside a break. The checker's "school days" leave out weekends, holidays, bank holidays and the in-service days a council fixes; they cannot leave out the INSET days a school picks for itself. When a council marks a year as provisional, the page says so. Every page carries the reading date: if a council changes a date afterwards, the official calendar wins, and we would like to hear about it.
Compiled by Radif Partners. This site does better than the first Google result because each council's 2026-27 and 2027-28 dates are read on its own website, linked and dated, and a checker answers "is school open that day?" at once, where the best-known list gives dates with no source and councils publish PDFs to read yourself.
Questions parents ask
When is October half term 2026?
For 95 of the 105 English councils on this site it is 26 to 30 October 2026, with pupils back on Monday 2 November. Bromley, Isle of Wight, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Surrey take two weeks. Scotland has a longer October break that varies by council, and Northern Ireland closes on 29 and 30 October for Halloween.
Do all schools in a council have the same holidays?
No. The council calendar binds community and voluntary controlled schools. Academies, free schools, foundation and voluntary aided schools set their own term dates and often follow the council, but not always. Every English school also chooses up to five INSET days, which are not on the council calendar.
Where do these term dates come from?
From each council’s own term dates page or the PDF or Word calendar it links to, read one by one. The page of every council gives the link to that file and the day we read it. When a council site blocks automated readers, we read the Internet Archive copy of the same file and say so.
Can I take my child on holiday during term time?
Only with the head teacher’s permission for exceptional circumstances. In England an unauthorised holiday can bring a penalty notice of £80 per parent per child if paid within 21 days, £160 within 28 days. Wales uses £60 and £120; Scotland and Northern Ireland have no fixed penalty.
Why does the checker say a school day when my child is off?
Probably an INSET day chosen by the school, or a school that is an academy with its own calendar. The checker only knows the council calendar, the bank holidays and the in-service days a council fixes. Check the letters or website of the school for its training days.
Are the 2027-28 term dates out yet?
For 111 of the 119 calendars on this site, yes: many councils publish two years ahead so that families can plan. Where the council has not published 2027-28, the council page says so and the checker reports “not published yet” for those dates instead of guessing.
Where the dates come from
- GOV.UK, School term and holiday dates: find your local council
- GOV.UK, UK bank holidays (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
- Department of Education (Northern Ireland), School holidays 2026/2027
- The Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999, regulation 3: at least 380 sessions a year
- Department for Education, Working together to improve school attendance (statutory guidance, updated 9 July 2026)
School years 2026-27 and 2027-28, council pages last read on . A council calendar is an indication only: it does not replace the calendar of your child’s school.