Holidays
Summer holidays 2027: when schools break up, council by council
Six weeks in England and Wales, seven in Scotland and two months in Northern Ireland, starting on different days.
The summer holidays 2027 start on 22 July 2027 for 32 of the 99 English councils on this site, after a last day of term in the week of 19 July, and the school year 2027-28 starts again in the first days of September. The date of the last day varies more than any other in the calendar: some councils close on a Friday, others on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and a council that took a longer October break keeps its schools open into the last week of July. Scotland is different: Scottish schools break up at the end of June and go back in mid-August. Northern Ireland's summer holiday begins on 1 July 2027. The summer bank holiday is Monday 30 August 2027 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Monday 2 August in Scotland. The countdown below gives the days and school days left before your council breaks up.
Dates read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the dates are checked
The last day of term in July 2027
Councils count backwards from the 190 days pupils must attend. Starting in the first days of September 2026 and keeping the usual breaks, most land on a last day in the third week of July 2027. A council that begins its year on a Tuesday, or takes two weeks in October, ends a few days later.
Holidays from 22 July 2027: Barnsley, Bedford, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Brighton and Hove, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Central Bedfordshire, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, County Durham, Dorset, Essex, Kent, Lancashire, Liverpool, Luton, Milton Keynes, North Northamptonshire, Oldham, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Rotherham, Sefton, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, Stockport, Suffolk, Thurrock, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wirral. Holidays from 22 July 2027: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Gloucestershire, Reading, Sandwell, Shropshire, Solihull, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Walsall, West Northamptonshire, Wokingham, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire. Holidays from 23 July 2027: Croydon, East Sussex, Enfield, Haringey, Hertfordshire, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Lewisham, Manchester, Newham, Royal Greenwich, Southwark, Waltham Forest. Holidays from 22 July 2027: Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Lincolnshire, Medway, Northumberland, Rochdale, Trafford, Wakefield. Holidays from 26 July 2027: Bristol, Somerset, Swindon, Tower Hamlets, Wiltshire. Holidays from 27 July 2027: Derby, Derbyshire, Hull, North Yorkshire, York. Holidays from 19 July 2027: Cumberland, Newcastle, Westmorland and Furness. Holidays from 29 July 2027: Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Surrey. Holidays from 22 July 2027: Oxfordshire, Wigan. Holidays from 23 July 2027: Leeds, Salford. Holidays from 27 July 2027: Brent, Plymouth. Holidays from 12 July 2027: Leicester. Holidays from 23 July 2027: Redbridge. Holidays from 26 July 2027: Bolton. Holidays from 26 July 2027: Bromley. Holidays from 26 July 2027: Cornwall. Holidays from 28 July 2027: Devon. Holidays from 28 July 2027: Ealing.
Every council, summer 2027
Where the end of the summer holidays is blank, the council has not yet published the start of 2027-28, so the return date is not known.
Scotland: June to August
Scottish councils on the site break up from 2 July 2027. The school year then restarts in mid-August, with in-service days before pupils return. The Scotland page lists the councils side by side, which matters for families who move between Scotland and England in the summer: a child can be in school in Edinburgh in mid-August while a cousin in Carlisle is still on holiday.
Northern Ireland
The common closure dates for 2026-27 start the summer holiday on 1 July 2027. Schools resume in the first days of September, and the Battle of the Boyne holiday on 12 July falls inside the break.
The first day back
The council date for the first day of the new year is when staff start. In England many schools spend the first one or two days on INSET, and some reception and Year 7 classes start with a staggered intake, so a child's first day can be later than the date on the council calendar. The school letter of July gives the actual day.
Planning six weeks
Holiday clubs and the council's holiday activity and food programme for children on free school meals run part of the summer. Families with children in two areas lose some shared weeks when the last days of term differ: the comparison above shows how many weekdays one child is off while the other is still in school. Booking a holiday before the last day of term, even a day early, is an unauthorised absence unless the head teacher agrees, and in England it can bring a penalty notice.