School Term Dates Guides & Advice

Articles

October Half Term 2026 and 2027: Dates for Every Council in England

For most families in England, October half term is the first proper break of the school year, and it falls in the same week almost everywhere. Almost everywhere is the important part: a small number of councils give their schools a longer break, and if you live near a boundary or have children at different […]

23 Oct 2026 · 2 min read Read article →

Articles

Why Academies and Council Schools Can Have Different Term Dates

It is a familiar situation in many families: one child’s school is on half term while a sibling at a different school is still in class. It is not usually a mistake. In England, different types of state school have different bodies responsible for setting their term dates, and those bodies do not always choose […]

8 Jul 2026 · 5 min read Read article →

Articles

Half-Term and Holiday Childcare: A Practical Planning Guide for Working Parents

For working parents, the school calendar creates a simple but stubborn problem. Maintained schools in England open for 190 days a year, which leaves around 14 weeks when children are not in school once weekends are set aside, plus a handful of INSET days on top. The statutory minimum holiday for a full-time worker is […]

4 Jul 2026 · 5 min read Read article →

Articles

Religious Festivals and School Absence: What the Law Says

Many families in England mark religious festivals that fall during term time, such as Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur or Vaisakhi. Attendance law makes specific provision for this, but the protection is narrower than many parents expect, and the difference between the festival day and any extra days around it matters. […]

3 Jul 2026 · 4 min read Read article →

Articles

How School Attendance Is Monitored in England: Daily Data, Register Codes and the Three-Year Rule

Many parents assume that a child’s attendance record starts afresh each September. In some ways it does: attendance percentages are usually reported for the current school year. But the way absence is recorded, shared and acted on changed significantly in 2024, and some parts of the system now look back much further than a single […]

22 Jun 2026 · 6 min read Read article →

Articles

Term-Time Holidays and School Fines in England: What Parents Need to Know

Family holidays booked outside the school holidays are usually cheaper, and every year a large number of parents decide that the saving is worth the risk of a fine. The Department for Education’s figures show how common this is: in the 2024/25 school year, councils in England issued 492,800 penalty notices for school absence, and […]

7 Jun 2026 · 6 min read Read article →

Articles

Summer-Born Children: Deferring or Delaying the Start of School

Children in England usually start Reception in the September after their fourth birthday. For a child born in August, that means starting school only just after turning four, alongside classmates who may be almost a year older. Many parents of summer-born children ask whether their child has to start then, and what the alternatives are. […]

1 Jun 2026 · 5 min read Read article →

Articles

Starting Primary or Secondary School: Key Dates and Deadlines for Parents

Starting Reception or moving up to Year 7 is a big step for children, and for parents it comes with a timetable of deadlines that runs for most of a year. Most of these dates are set nationally, so they are the same wherever you live in England, but the detail of how you apply […]

25 May 2026 · 5 min read Read article →

Articles

How INSET Days Are Chosen, and How to Find Your School’s

INSET days, also called training days, staff development days or teacher days, are the days when a school is open for staff but closed to pupils. For parents, they are often the hardest part of the school calendar to plan for, because they are not on the council’s published term dates and they vary from […]

16 May 2026 · 4 min read Read article →

Articles

The 190-Day School Year: How Term Dates Are Put Together

The school year can look as though it is arranged differently every year, and in some ways it is. But underneath the variation there is a fixed requirement that every council works to: 190 days with pupils, plus five days for staff. This guide explains where that comes from, how councils fit it around Easter […]

15 Apr 2026 · 5 min read Read article →