ACT School Holidays

ACT School Holiday and Term Dates

ACT School Holiday Dates 2026

2026 ACT School Holiday Information

The information below is relevant to Australian Capital Territory state schools. Independent and Catholic schools do base their terms on the state school dates but their term dates can vary from school to school. You should check directly with the relevant school to find out the correct term date information.

Note that the dates below represent official term dates however many schools elect to start the students back on slightly different dates.

In the ACT the starting dates of new students and continuing / returning students is staggered in Term 1 to allow new students to settle in to their new schools.

2026 Australian Capital Territory School Holidays and Term Dates

PeriodStartFinishLength
Term 1 – New StudentsFriday, 30 January 2026Thursday, 2 April 202610 Weeks
Term 1 – Continuing StudentsMonday, 2 February 2026Thursday, 2 April 202610 Weeks
School HolidaysFriday, 3 April 2026Monday, 20 April 2026 
Term 2 – All StudentsTuesday, 21 April 2026Friday, 3 July 202610 Weeks
School HolidaysSaturday, 4 July 2026Monday 20 July 2026 
Term 3 – All StudentsTuesday, 21 July 2026Friday, 25 September 202610 Weeks
School HolidaysSaturday, 26 September 2026Monday, 12 October 2026 
Term 4 – All StudentsTuesday, 13 October 2026Friday, 18 December 202610 Weeks
School HolidaysSaturday 19 December, 2026End of January 2027 TBC 

Note: In term 1 teachers commence on the Thursday 29 January 2026 prior to the students start date, and in term 2, term 3 and term 4 teachers start one day prior to the students start dates.

If you would like to know public holiday dates please visit our sister site ACT Public Holidays for everything you need to know about public holidays in the Australian Capital Territory.

The information presented on this website does not take into account Student Free Days which are set by each school individually.

Private and catholic schools tend to use these dates as a guide but their dates sometimes differ slightly from state run public schools.

Information on these calendars is gathered from education department or government sources. We recommend double checking information against official education and government websites to confirm the dates are correct. From time to time the data on this website are updated to keep the information up to date.