Singapore School Holidays 2026

School Holidays in 2026

Singapore main school holiday periods in 2026 fall in March, June, September and at the end of the school year. The dates below are taken from the official Ministry of Education calendar and cover MOE Kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and Millennia Institute.

Do working parents get time off during school holidays?

No. School holidays are set by MOE for students and carry no employment entitlement at all. Only the eleven gazetted public holidays give employees a day off. This is the most common misunderstanding parents have about the school calendar, and it matters most during the thirty-day June break.

Which 2026 school break is best for a family trip?

The September break, 5 to 13 September, offers the best balance of length and cost. For a longer trip, the June break from 30 May to 28 June is the only window with real room — and if you take 28 and 29 May as leave, Hari Raya Haji on 27 May extends it at the front for almost nothing.

Are school holidays the same for international schools?

No. International schools follow their own calendars, often aligned to the northern hemisphere academic year with a long summer break from June to August and different term structures. If your children attend different school systems, the calendars rarely line up, and you will need to check each school’s published dates individually.

Do polytechnic and ITE students follow these dates?

No. Both run semester systems rather than MOE’s four terms. Their breaks fall at different times and are frequently occupied by Industrial Attachment or internships. See our ITE school holidays and polytechnic holidays pages for the detail.

Where can I find the 2027 school holiday dates?

MOE has published the 2027 calendar, and the full term structure with break dates is on our 2027 school holidays page. The 2027 school year begins on 4 January 2027, and the June break runs from 29 May to 27 June.

Last updated: 4 September 2026

Primary & Secondary School Holidays 2026

Important: Primary 1 and Kindergarten 1 pupils start school on 2 January 2026. Primary 2 to 6 and Kindergarten 2 pupils return on 5 January. Although Term 2 officially begins on 23 March, schools will be closed that day for the Hari Raya Puasa off-in-lieu. Students return on Tuesday, 24 March 2026. Schools used for the GCE O-Level written examinations may end Term 4 on 23 October 2026.

Junior Colleges Holidays 2026

Millennia Institute Holidays 2026

Other Scheduled School Holidays 2026

School holidays and public holidays are different. In 2026, schools will also be closed on 23 March for the Hari Raya Puasa off-in-lieu, 10 August following National Day, and 9 November following Deepavali. The 1 June Vesak Day public holiday falls within the June school holidays.

Note: Children’s Day applies to primary schools and primary sections of full schools only.

More About Singapore School Holidays 2026

When Does School Reopen in 2026?

After the March school holidays, students return on Tuesday, 24 March 2026 because Monday, 23 March is a designated school day off-in-lieu. Schools reopen after the June holidays on 29 June and after the September holidays on 14 September. These reopening dates can also be checked on the official MOE academic calendar.

When Do Primary and Secondary Schools End in 2026?

The final school term for primary and secondary students ends on Friday, 20 November 2026. However, secondary schools used as venues for the GCE O-Level written examinations may finish on 23 October. Parents and students should check their school’s notice alongside the official MOE school terms announcement.

Is Today or Tomorrow a School Holiday?

To check whether today, tomorrow or the coming Monday is a school holiday, compare the date with the tables above and the live MOE calendar. School-specific events, examinations, CCAs and staff training days may not appear in the national calendar, so the notice issued by your school should be treated as the final confirmation.

School Holidays and Public Holidays

School holidays are set by MOE for students, while the eleven gazetted public holidays apply to the whole country. The two overlap in places: National Day on 9 August 2026 falls on a Sunday, so Monday 10 August is a gazetted replacement day, and Deepavali on 8 November works the same way with Monday 9 November. Vesak Day on 31 May sits at the very start of the June break. You can see all of them on the Singapore public holidays calendar, and the confirmed 2027 dates are already published.

ITE and Polytechnic Holidays

ITE and polytechnic holidays do not follow the MOE primary and secondary calendar at all — both run semester systems rather than four ten-week terms, so their breaks fall at different points in the year. We list them in full on our ITE school holidays and polytechnic school holidays pages, including how the January and April ITE intakes differ and where Industrial Attachment eats into the published vacation. For course-specific examination dates, students should still check their own institution’s academic calendar.

For the 2026 academic year, ITE students generally get two main vacation blocks: one in late March to early April, and a second one in June, plus shorter breaks in September and at year-end. Because ITE College Central, ITE College East and ITE College West each run Nitec and Higher Nitec cohorts on slightly different training and exam timetables, the exact off-days can shift by a few days between campuses.

Polytechnic students at Ngee Ann, Temasek, Singapore, Nanyang and Republic Polytechnic usually get a shorter break between semesters around May, then a longer year-end vacation from late November. If you are booking flights, an internship start date, or a family trip around these dates, check your own campus or course calendar first, since these vacation blocks are set independently and do not always line up with each other or with the MOE school calendar above.

TTS and International School Term Dates

Tanglin Trust School and other international schools use separate academic calendars, so their holidays may not match Singapore’s MOE school holidays. Families looking for TTS term dates should consult the official Tanglin Trust School term calendar before making travel arrangements.

Planning Around the School Holidays

The June and year-end holidays provide more time for longer family trips, while the March and September breaks are better suited to shorter plans. Before booking flights or accommodation, check for school camps, supplementary lessons and examinations. You can find more suggestions in our Singapore holiday planning guides.

Keeping the Calendar Accurate

MOE may update its academic calendar when dates or off-in-lieu arrangements change. We review official announcements and update this page when new information becomes available. Read more about our checking process on the About Us page, or contact us if you notice a date that needs reviewing.

Where the 2026 Public Holidays Fall Against the School Breaks

Parents plan around two calendars at once, and the overlap between them decides how much family time you actually get. In 2026 the two calendars interact in a way that is worth understanding before you book anything.

Three public holidays are swallowed by school breaks. Hari Raya Puasa on Saturday 21 March falls inside the March break. Vesak Day on Sunday 31 May, with its Monday 1 June replacement, falls in the first days of the June break. Christmas Day on Friday 25 December sits inside the year-end holiday. Your children gain nothing from these — they are already off — though you as an employee still get the day.

The best window of the year is the end of May. Hari Raya Haji falls on Wednesday 27 May 2026, and the June school break starts on Saturday 30 May. Take Thursday 28 and Friday 29 May as annual leave and your family is free from Wednesday 27 May straight into a thirty-day school holiday. Two days of leave is the entire cost.

Term-time long weekends. Good Friday on 3 April and Labour Day on 1 May both fall on Fridays during Term 2. National Day gives a Sunday-plus-Monday break on 9 and 10 August in Term 3, and Deepavali does the same on 8 and 9 November in Term 4. These four are the ones that genuinely add family days, because school is in session either side.

Childcare Through the Thirty-Day June Break

The June holiday is the hardest part of the year for working parents, and it is worth saying plainly: school holidays carry no employment entitlement. A thirty-day break for your child is thirty working days for you, and most parents do not have that much annual leave.

The options in practice are holiday camps run by enrichment centres and sports clubs, student care centres that extend to full-day programmes during breaks, community centre holiday activities, and grandparent or family arrangements. Popular camps for the June window typically open registration in March and April and fill quickly, particularly the ones attached to schools.

If you and a partner both work, staggering leave rather than taking it together usually stretches coverage much further. Two parents taking alternating weeks covers four weeks of the break on the same total leave that two weeks together would consume.

Choosing Which Break to Travel In

The June and year-end breaks are the expensive ones, because every family in Singapore is trying to travel at the same time and regional school holidays overlap. Airfares to Japan, Korea, Australia and Europe rise sharply from around March for the June window.

The March and September breaks are nine days each and considerably better value. Neither collides with peak season, and nine days is comfortable for Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia or Hong Kong. The September break in particular tends to be the quietest and cheapest week of the school year to fly.

If the year-end is unavoidable, the last week of November and the first week of December sit after schools close but before festive pricing takes hold. It is the single most reliable saving available in that period.

What the School-Only Holidays Actually Mean in 2026

The dates in the table above are easy to find. What almost nobody spells out is how they interact with the term calendar — and that is where the useful days hide.

Teachers’ Day, Friday 4 September, is the last day of Term III. Term III ends on 4 September and the September break runs 5 to 13 September. Because schools close for Teachers’ Day, your children are actually off from Friday 4 September straight through to Sunday 13 September. That is ten days, not the nine the vacation table suggests. If you are booking flights for the September window, that extra Friday is free.

Youth Day gives a three-day weekend in the middle of Term III. Youth Day falls on Sunday 5 July 2026 and schools observe it on Monday 6 July. It is a school holiday only — you still work — but it is the one long weekend inside an otherwise unbroken ten-week term.

Children’s Day, Friday 2 October, applies to primary schools only. Primary schools and the primary sections of full schools close; secondary schools do not. Families with children at both levels get the most awkward version of this — one child at home, one at school. It is worth checking your secondary school’s own calendar, as some schedule a separate day around it.

Monday 10 August is different from the others. National Day falls on Sunday 9 August 2026, so Monday 10 August is a gazetted public holiday rather than a school-only one. That means parents get the day off too — the only date on that list where the whole household is free.

If Your Child’s School Is an O-Level Exam Centre

This catches families out every year. Term IV normally ends on Friday 20 November 2026, but schools that host GCE O-Level written examinations end Term IV on 23 October instead — nearly a month earlier.

The early finish applies to the school as a venue, not to every cohort in it. In practice, affected levels are released while examinations run, and arrangements differ from school to school. If your child is in a lower secondary level at an exam-centre school, do not assume a four-week head start on the holidays until the school confirms it in writing. Check the school’s own circular rather than the national calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions About Singapore School Holidays