Who sets school term dates in England?
Reviewed 2026-09-08 · TermMinder
Search for school term dates on GOV.UK and you get a postcode box, not a calendar. The official page on school term and holiday dates lists no dates at all. It says that "school term and holiday dates vary across the UK" and sends you to your local council.
That is because England has no national school calendar. Who decides when your child's school opens and closes is set out in law, and it depends on the type of school.
The council decides for most maintained schools
Section 32 of the Education Act 2002 is the key provision. For community schools, voluntary controlled schools, community special schools and maintained nursery schools, "the local authority shall determine the dates when the school terms and holidays are to begin and end".
In plain terms, your council picks the calendar, and neighbouring councils pick differently. For autumn 2026, Leicestershire has its half term on 19 to 23 October, while Kent runs Term 1 to 23 October and breaks the week after. Surrey has gone further: its community and voluntary controlled schools get a two-week autumn half term, 19 to 30 October 2026, with the days taken back from July 2027.
Governing bodies decide for some schools
The same section gives the governing body, not the council, the power to set dates for foundation schools, voluntary aided schools and foundation special schools. Surrey's page says that "other schools set their own dates but are encouraged to follow these". Encouraged, not required.
Academies sit outside section 32 altogether. GOV.UK's guide to school types explains that academies and free schools "are independent from the local authority", so each academy trust sets its own calendar. Councils say this openly. Surrey's term dates page warns that "Academies, Voluntary Aided and Foundation schools may have different term dates."
Why dates still cluster together
With hundreds of bodies able to set dates, you might expect chaos. In practice English term dates cluster tightly, because the amount of schooling is fixed nationally.
The Education (School Day and School Year) Regulations 1999 say that "at least 380 sessions shall be held at a school during any school year". A school day is two sessions, morning and afternoon, so 380 sessions is 190 days. Leicestershire puts the same rule in one line on its own page: "The law requires local authority schools to have 190 school days".
Every calendar, whoever writes it, has to deliver those 380 sessions. The regulations fix the amount of schooling, not where it sits: Leicestershire's own 2026/27 year opens on Monday 24 August 2026 and closes on Tuesday 6 July 2027, well ahead of Kent's 21 July finish. That shared arithmetic, and the habit of three terms each split by a half term, is why calendars look alike even though they are set separately.
What this means for you
Three practical things follow.
Check dates at the level where they are set. For a community school, that is the council. For an academy, a voluntary aided school or a foundation school, treat the council's table as the starting point and the school's own website as the final word.
Do not assume the next county matches yours. The power sits with each authority separately, and as Leicestershire, Kent and Surrey show for October 2026, they use it differently.
Expect staff training days on top. Council tables leave them out because schools set them. Kent tells parents to "contact your child's school to check staff training days", and Leicestershire says INSET days "are determined by the school". So a child's real first and last days can differ from the council's published ones.
TermMinder shows published authority calendars and labels the school-scope caveat beside the dates. Start with the finder when you need a country, authority or school result, then confirm the school's own calendar where the law leaves it discretion. The academies guide explains the main exception.