October half term 2026: why England splits in two
Reviewed 2026-09-08 · TermMinder
Ask families in different parts of England when the October half term falls in 2026 and you will get at least three different answers, all of them correct. Every local authority sets its own dates, so the autumn half term has quietly become a patchwork. Autumn 2026 shows the pattern clearly, and it is worth knowing which side of it you are on before you book anything.
The early week: 19 to 23 October
In the East Midlands the break comes early. Leicestershire County Council has its autumn half term from Monday 19 to Friday 23 October 2026. Leicestershire's schools also open unusually early, on Monday 24 August 2026, so by half term its pupils have already been in school for eight weeks.
For context, that is a week later than Scotland's capital. Edinburgh's mid-term break runs from Monday 12 to Monday 19 October 2026, with pupils back on the Tuesday. So across Britain this autumn, children are off in three different weeks depending on which side of which border they live.
The late week: 26 to 30 October
Head south east and the whole week shifts. Kent County Council runs its Term 1 from 1 September to Friday 23 October 2026 and starts Term 2 on Monday 2 November, which puts its half term in the week of 26 to 30 October, a full week after Leicestershire. For Kent families the break butts up against Halloween.
Wales is in the late camp too. The Welsh Government's national direction for 2026/27 sets half term from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October for every maintained school in Wales, so a family in Chester and a family in Wrexham may or may not match, depending on which week Cheshire has picked.
There is no national rule pointing English councils to either week. The only place to check is your own council's page, which GOV.UK's term dates finder will locate from a postcode.
The fortnight: Surrey takes both
Then there is the third answer. From September 2026, Surrey County Council moves its community and voluntary controlled schools to a two-week autumn half term, running from Monday 19 to Friday 30 October 2026. That spans both of the weeks its neighbours use.
The council pays for the extra week by shortening the summer holiday. Its page says that "five days will be taken from the summer holiday in July 2027", with the summer term now ending on Wednesday 28 July 2027, and it is careful to note that "the school year will still have 195 days, including 5 INSET days". A council can reshape its year, but the total number of school days is fixed, so the only freedom is in where the breaks go.
Why the split matters to you
The week-apart divide has real consequences. Families straddling a boundary, with parents working in one county and children at school in another, can find their childcare plans and their annual leave pointing at different weeks. Grandparents helping out need the right week's dates, not the familiar ones.
Be precise about which council counts. If you live near a county line, the authority that collects your bins is not necessarily the one whose half term applies to your child. It is the education authority for the school's area that matters, and confirming that takes two minutes.
It cuts both ways for travel. If your council is in the early week, most of the country is still in school while you are off. That is worth a look before you book, because you may find quieter attractions and different prices than in the late week.
And remember the standing caveat about individual schools. Kent's page opens by warning that "term dates for some schools may be different", and Surrey notes that "academies, voluntary aided and foundation schools may have different term dates". The council page tells you the area's default; your school's own calendar settles it.
Use the finder to open your authority's published dates, and use the public ICS or the device-local save action to keep the week with your family plans. Where several authorities have published exact dates, TermMinder's comparison page makes the overlap visible. The holiday-prices guide explains why a week of difference can matter.