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Proposed School Term and Holiday Dates for Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools 2025/26

Have your say.

Consultation status Archived
Start date: 2024-01-08
End date: 2024-02-16
Results 2024-03-01
Category: Caring for Children and Families, Schools, Learning and Libraries
Ward:

Activity closed. Results published.

Background

The proposed school term dates for community and voluntary controlled schools for 2025/26 have been through our internal consultation process. 

Our set dates traditionally include a common fixed inset date at the start of the Autumn Term. Therefore, 191 days are set with recommendations for the other 4 INSET days. For 2025/26 the proposed common INSET day is Wednesday 3 September 2025 with the other suggested INSET days being Friday 24 October 2025, Monday 3 November 2025, Friday 2 January 2026 and Thursday 2 April 2026.

We've aligned our term dates with neighbouring authorities to try to alleviate any cross border difficulties.

We recommend that schools consider aligning their terms with other schools in the area; for example, secondary schools with primary schools, in recognition that families may have children in different year groups.

Once agreed, these dates are only a guide and we recommend that you check with the school if a specific date is key to your plans, e.g. before making a holiday booking, as a school may adjust the dates slightly due to other plans.

 

Proposed term dates for 2025/266
 Term 1 
 Thursday 4 September 2025 - Thursday 23 October 202536 days
Holiday 24/10/2025 - 03/11/2025  
 Term 2 
 Tuesday 4 November 2025 - Thursday 18 December 202535 days
Holiday

19/12/2025 - 02/01/2026

 
 Term 3 
 Monday 5 January 2026 - Friday 13 February 202630 days
Holiday16/02/2026 - 20/02/2026 
 Term 4 
 Monday 23 February 2026 - Friday 27 March 202628 days
Holiday30/03/2026 - 10/04/2026 
 Term 5 
 Monday 13 April 2026 - Friday 22 May 202624 days
Holiday26/05/2026 - 29/05/2026 
 Term 6 
 Monday 1 June 2026 - Tuesday 21 July 202637 days
  Total: 190 days

 

Public Holidays
25 December 2025Christmas Day
26 December 2025Boxing Day
1 January 2026New Year's Day
3 April 2026Good Friday
6 April 2026Easter Monday
4 May 2026May Day Bank Holiday
25 May 2026Spring Bank Holiday

 

You can download this information as a pdf in Icon for pdf calendar view [77KB] or . 


How to take part

If you'd like to comment on our proposed term dates, please complete our survey by 5pm on Friday, 16 February 2024. The survey should take about 5 minutes.

If you have any questions, please contact the Trading, Pupil Transport and Planning team on educationconsultation@westberks.gov.uk or call 01635 519777.


What happens next

Your feedback will be taken into consideration, and a final decision made by Delegated Officer Decision on 1 March 2024.

What you told us

We received 15 responses to the online survey, with nine people commenting on the proposed dates. Some of the comments referred to length of the school year and number of holidays, which are statutory duties set nationally by the government, and are therefore beyond West Berkshire Council’s control.

Respondents requested changes to the proposed dates to better suit childcare/working parents or personal views. We have broadly matched our proposed terms/holidays with neighbouring authorities (Hampshire, Reading and Oxfordshire) to alleviate difficulties for families and staff with children at different schools.

Comments about inset days have been taken into consideration, however, schools make their own decisions regarding inset days and often choose alternative dates or twilight sessions.  

What we did

For further information, please email educationconsultation@westberks.gov.uk.

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