School Holidays from round the World

Earlier this month we shared some tips for helping your kids deal with moving to a new country. In the blog post we emphasised how important it is to make your kids excited about the move before you go. So what’s one of the easiest ways to get kids excited? School holidays! In this post we’re going to look at the different school holidays around the world to see how they differ from country to country.

USA

In America, the school holiday runs from June until September, and there’s a break at Christmas starting a week or so before Christmas day and lasting up until one week after New Year’s Day. Although the vast majority of schools across America follow this schedule each education district has the jurisdiction to select their own holidays so dates across the country can vary.

Australia

In Australia, each state education department has the ability to decide when the school holidays will fall each year. This has resulted in different states having school holidays when others are still working. For instance, the state of Tasmania has three school terms, whereas the other states all have four.

Outside of Tasmania the school terms run from the start of February until early April, then from late April to the start of July. The second two terms run from mid July to late September and then from early October to late December. In Tasmania the school terms roughly run from mid February to late April, then from late June to early September and finally from late September to early December.

New Zealand

Schools in New Zealand have four terms and the individual schools set their own holiday dates based on individual commitments they have to uphold. But the government sets dates that the terms have to fall between. They are as follows; term one has to start at the end of January and finishes in early April. Term two starts in late May and lasts until the end of June. Term three begins in mid July and lasts till the end of September and the final term starts in mid October and finishes in late December.

Thailand

In Thailand, the academic year is split into two semesters. The first runs from the middle of May until the end of September and the second lasts from November until late February. There is a further optional semester during the spring and summer. Many students in rural areas choose to miss the third semester as they often work on farmland during these months.

Japan

The Japanese school system runs three terms a year with a longer break in the summer for students to enjoy the good weather and high temperatures. The first term of the academic year runs from early April to mid July, the second term begins in early September and lasts until late December and the final term begins early January and finishes in early March.