Looking back at school holidays in Ireland in 2025/26
An earlier school year
This school year has ended. Its dates remain available here exactly as the circular that covered it printed them, for anyone checking an earlier school calendar.
| Break | Primary schools | Post-primary schools |
|---|---|---|
| October mid-term break | to inclusive, 5 days All schools. | |
| Christmas holidays | Last day of termSchools re-open All schools. | |
| February mid-term break | to inclusive, 2 days Or, with three discretionary days, the full week from to (5 days). | to inclusive, 5 days |
| Easter holidays | Last day of termSchools re-open All schools. | |
Print this page for a one-page overview of the breaks in 2025/26, showing just the heading and table.
The 2025/26 dates are kept here for anyone checking a past school calendar. October mid-term fell in the last week of the month, and schools finished on a Friday and returned on a Monday for both Christmas and Easter. Unlike the current arrangements, the earlier circular allowed both primary and post-primary schools to shorten the Easter break to make up for unforeseen closures. The table shows the dates set out in that earlier circular.
School dates here follow the Department of Education and Youth's circulars for the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland schools follow a different calendar from their own Department of Education, which this site does not cover.
Christmas and Easter show the two printed days only; the February week at primary level is a choice each school makes. Circular 0072/2022.
At a glance
- Standardised school breaks
- four breaks: October mid-term, February mid-term, Christmas and Easter
- Weekdays off for mid-term, Calculated
- ten weekdays for post-primary schools; seven weekdays for primary schools, or ten weekdays with three discretionary days for the full February week. The full February week may be shortened to make up for unforeseen closures, but all schools must still close on Thursday and Friday; check your school's calendar.
- Easter interval, Calculated
- ten weekdays between the last day of term and the re-opening day, excluding both dates (sixteen days in total); public holidays between them: Easter Monday (Monday 6 April 2026)
- Minimum teaching days
- 182 days for primary and special schools; 166 days for post-primary schools, required by the circular
- Equivalent school weeks, Calculated
- About 36 weeks at primary level and 33 weeks at post-primary level, based on the minimum number of teaching days and a five-day school week
- School year start and summer closing
- The circular gives the week containing Monday 1 September 2025 as the starting week, but sets no national opening date; each school sets its own opening and summer closing dates
Figures marked Calculated are worked out from the dates in the circular or the Commission's list, or from dates established by the Act and the regulations. The sources do not give these figures directly.
Add to your calendar (.ics) The file includes only the dates shown in this table, with a note explaining the source or rule for each. No extra dates are added.
By calendar year instead: school holidays in 2026.
Days off and childcare cover for 2025/26
These figures assume a Monday-to-Friday working week. The 'Days off in a row' column includes adjoining weekends and public holidays for mid-term; for Christmas and Easter, it counts only the days between the last day of term and the re-opening day, excluding both. 'Working days needing childcare' means school weekdays off minus public holidays on those weekdays. All figures are worked out from the printed dates and marked Calculated. For this past school year, use the table to check the published arrangements and consult your school's calendar for any discretionary days or changes made to recover lost time.
| Break | Which schools | Days off in a row | School weekdays off | Public holidays on those weekdays | Working days needing childcare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February mid-term break | Primary schools: required Thursday and Friday | four days, from to , inclusive | two weekdays | None | two weekdays |
| February mid-term break | Primary schools: full week using three discretionary days | nine days, from to , inclusive | five weekdays | None | five weekdays |
| February mid-term break | Post-primary schools | nine days, from to , inclusive | five weekdays | None | five weekdays |
| Easter holidays | All schools | sixteen days between the last day of term and the re-opening day, excluding both | ten weekdays | Easter Monday, | nine weekdays |
This table leaves out October mid-term break and Christmas holidays because the site's public holiday list does not cover all the calendar years needed to count public holidays during these breaks. The dates are in the table of breaks further up this page.
Summer holidays are not standardised, so there is no national count; check your school's calendar for its dates.
Planning around the breaks in 2025/26
At Christmas, term ended on the Friday in the week before Christmas and resumed on the Monday of January's first full week. At Easter, the printed days were a Friday at March's end and a Monday in mid-April. Each pair had sixteen days between the printed last day of term and re-opening day, excluding both printed days. New Year's Day, a Thursday, lay between the Christmas entries; Easter Monday lay between the Easter entries.
February mid-term ran from Monday to Friday in the third week for post-primary schools. Primary schools closed on Thursday and Friday, with three discretionary days available for a full week. To make up time after unforeseen closures, a school authority could stay open up to and including the mid-term Wednesday given in the February break details below. The earlier circular also allowed school authorities to stay open until the Wednesday before Easter, inclusive, for the same reason.
Each break as the circular prints it
October mid-term break 2025/26
All schools will close from Monday 27th October 2025 to Friday 31st October 2025 inclusive.
Christmas holidays 2025/26
All schools will close on Friday 19th December 2025, which will be the final day of the school term.
All schools will re-open on Monday 5th January 2026.
February mid-term break 2025/26
All primary schools will close on Thursday 19th February 2026 and 20th February 2026
Primary schools may use 3 discretionary days to extend this break to an alternative option of a 5 day break for the period from Monday 16th February 2026 to Friday 20th February 2026 inclusive unless changes are required as part of contingency arrangements to make up for time lost due to unforeseen school closures.
Post-primary schools will close from Monday 16th February 2026 to Friday 20th February 2026 inclusive unless changes are required as part of contingency arrangements to make up for time lost due to unforeseen school closures.
Contingency: where time lost to unforeseen closures must be made up, the circular allows a school authority to keep the school open up to and including .
Easter holidays 2025/26
All schools will close on Friday 27th March 2026, which will be the final day of the school term, unless changes are required as part of contingency arrangements to make up for time lost due to unforeseen school closures.
All schools will re-open on Monday 13th April 2026.
Contingency: where time lost to unforeseen closures must be made up, the circular allows a school authority to keep the school open up to and including .
Rules of Circular 0072/2022
The dates above are those of Circular 0072/2022. The rules quoted on the standardised school year page are those of the current circular and are not restated here for this year.
Questions parents ask
Was the October break entirely within October?
The October closure ran from Monday 27 October 2025 to Friday 31 October 2025, entirely within October. The earlier circular gave primary and post-primary schools the same autumn break.
Where did the spring public holidays sit around mid-term?
St Brigid's Day was Monday 2 February 2026, ahead of post-primary mid-term beginning on Monday 16 February 2026, while St Patrick's Day was Tuesday 17 March 2026. The latter holiday fell during term between the February and Easter breaks.
Was Good Friday part of the Easter school holidays?
Good Friday fell on Friday 3 April 2026, between the Easter finishing date of Friday 27 March 2026 and the re-opening date of Monday 13 April 2026. It was part of the school break but had no public holiday status.
Official documents
- Department of Education: Circular 0072/2022 Standardisation of the school year ... 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 (DOCX, 10 November 2022) (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
- Workplace Relations Commission: Public Holidays (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
- Irish Statute Book: Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, Second Schedule (as enacted) (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
- Irish Statute Book: S.I. No. 50/2022 Organisation of Working Time (Covid-19 Commemoration) Regulations 2022 (HTML) (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
Every date on this page was checked against these documents on . If anything here differs from the circular or the Act, the official text applies. How the dates are checked.