Guide
Finding your school's term dates, in the right order
Updated
For a parent this is a two minute job done in the wrong order by almost everybody, which is why so many families discover an inset day the night before.
Start at the school
The school's own calendar is authoritative for that school, and for a foundation, voluntary aided or foundation special school the governing body is the body that determined the dates under section 32 of the Education Act 2002.
For an academy or free school the trust sets them independently of the council. In both cases the council's calendar is at best a good guess.
Then the council, for maintained schools
For community, voluntary controlled and community special schools, the local authority determines when terms and holidays begin and end, so the council calendar is authoritative for those.
gov.uk's own term dates service directs you here, which is the right answer for a large share of schools and not for all of them.
The date that is never on a council calendar
Inset days. They are set by the school, they move, and they are the single most common cause of a family arriving at a closed school.
A council calendar will show the term boundaries correctly and say nothing useful about which days inside the term the school is closed to pupils. Only the school knows.
Two schools, two calendars
Families with children at a primary and a secondary, or across a council boundary, routinely have two different sets of dates and sometimes two different half terms.
Check both rather than assuming, particularly in September and at February half term, which are where divergence is most common. And check each school again after the summer, because dates published a year ahead do get revised.