Kent School Term Dates 2026/27: Two-Week October Break

Kent County Council publishes one set of term dates for the whole county, and a large number of Sevenoaks schools do not use them. Four of the district’s best-known schools break up for the October holiday a full week before the county’s dates say, and the first day back this September lands on four different days depending on which school your child is at. This page sets out the county’s determined dates for 2026/27 and 2027/28, then shows, school by school, where the local dates actually differ, all taken from each school’s own published calendar.

The quick answer

Kent County Council’s determined dates for 2026/27 run from Tuesday 1 September 2026 to Wednesday 21 July 2027, with the October half term on Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026. Those dates apply to the schools the council maintains. Academies, grammar schools and independent schools set their own, and in Sevenoaks that matters: Knole Academy, Trinity School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Sevenoaks School all finish Term 1 on Friday 16 October and stay shut until 2 November, which is a two-week October break rather than one. If you are booking a holiday, check your own school’s calendar before you check the county’s.

Kent’s determined term dates for 2026/27

Kent runs a six-term year rather than three terms with half terms in the middle. These are the dates Kent County Council has determined for the schools it maintains, with the number of school days in each term.

The six terms come to 195 days. Pupils are required to attend for 190 of them, and the other five are the training days schools take out of that total, which is why almost every school in the district publishes a calendar that is a few days shorter than the county’s at both ends.

The October half term is not one week at most Sevenoaks secondaries

This is the difference worth knowing about before you book anything. Kent’s determined holiday is the single week of 26 to 30 October. The four Sevenoaks schools whose calendars we checked all end Term 1 on Friday 16 October instead, and none of them reopens to pupils before Monday 2 November.

Knole Academy gets there by putting three staff development days back to back on 19, 20 and 21 October, immediately before the county holiday. Trinity School simply publishes its October half term as “19th Oct 2026 - 30th Oct 2026”. Weald of Kent Grammar School ends Term 1 on 16 October and then makes Monday 2 November an INSET day as well, so its students are off until Tuesday 3 November, the longest October break of the six calendars here. Sevenoaks School, which is independent and does not follow the county at all, sends pupils home at 1pm on Friday 16 October.

Sevenoaks Primary School is the one in this group that stays close to Kent’s pattern: Term 1 ends on Thursday 22 October, Friday 23 October is a staff development day, and pupils return on 2 November.

When each school actually goes back this week

The county’s date is Tuesday 1 September. Only one of the schools below opens to pupils that day.

Two details in that table catch families out every year. The first is Weald of Kent’s staggered start: Years 7, 10 and 12 are in school on Thursday 3 September while Years 8, 9, 11 and 13 work online that day, and the whole school is not together until Friday 4 September. The second is Sevenoaks School’s December finish. It breaks up at 1pm on Thursday 10 December, eight days before the state schools, so a household with children at both will have one on holiday for well over a week while the other is still going in.

Trinity also runs an INSET day on Friday 28 August, before the bank holiday, which is why some Sevenoaks parents saw a school car park full on the last Friday of the summer holiday.

The rest of the 2026/27 year, school by school

The differences narrow after Christmas, but they do not disappear.

• January. Kent’s Term 3 starts Monday 4 January 2027. Knole Academy and Weald of Kent both start that day, Weald taking its next INSET on Monday 18 January. Trinity makes Monday 4 January an INSET day and starts on Tuesday 5 January. Sevenoaks School has a staff day on Wednesday 6 January and begins at 8.30am on Thursday 7 January.
• February. Kent’s Term 3 ends Friday 12 February. Knole ends on Thursday 11 February and uses the Friday as a staff development day. Sevenoaks School’s Lent half term begins at 1pm on Friday 12 February.
• Easter. Kent’s Term 4 ends Thursday 25 March 2027 and the holiday runs to Friday 9 April, with Good Friday on 26 March and Easter Monday on 29 March both falling inside it. Sevenoaks School ends its Lent term a day earlier, at 1pm on Wednesday 24 March.
• Summer. Kent’s year ends Wednesday 21 July 2027. Weald of Kent finishes earliest of the schools here, at 12.30pm on Friday 16 July. Trinity teaches to Monday 19 July and takes Tuesday 20 July as an INSET day. Knole runs to Thursday 22 July, a day beyond the county date.

Bank holidays in the 2026/27 school year

Kent lists nine bank holidays across the year. Eight of them fall in a school holiday and cost nothing, so there is only one bank holiday closure inside the 2026/27 school year: Monday 3 May 2027, the early May bank holiday, which lands in the middle of Term 5.

• 31 August 2026, summer holiday
• 25 December 2026, 28 December 2026 and 1 January 2027, Christmas holiday
• 26 March 2027 (Good Friday) and 29 March 2027 (Easter Monday), Easter holiday
• 3 May 2027, in Term 5: schools are shut
• 31 May 2027, the first day of the May half term
• 30 August 2027, summer holiday

One caution if you are working from the county’s own PDF: it prints the Term 5 bank holiday as “3/05/2026”. The correct date is Monday 3 May 2027, which is the one the calendar grid on the second page of that document shows.

Kent term dates for 2027/28

Kent has already determined the following year, which is what you need if you are booking a long way ahead. The autumn looks much like 2026/27, but the spring is redistributed, because Easter 2028 is late: Good Friday falls on 14 April. Term 4 grows from 24 school days to 30 and Term 5 shrinks from 34 to 28, the reverse of this year.

The same warning applies with more force for 2027/28: the academies have not yet published their own calendars that far out, and on this year’s evidence several of them will not match.

How to check your own school’s dates

• Start with the school’s own website. Every school in the district publishes its term dates, usually under “Parents” or “Key dates”, and that page is the one that governs, not the county’s.
• If you cannot find it, Kent County Council’s school search gives contact details for every school in the county.
• Check the staff training days specifically. They are the days most often missed, and they are not clustered at the ends of terms: Knole Academy lists at least one in every one of its six terms, from September through to July.
• Do not rely on the third-party term date aggregators. Several of them repeat Kent’s determined dates for schools that publish something different, which is exactly how a family ends up at the school gate on a training day.

Once you have your dates, the October half term guide covers what is open locally in the break, and there is more in things to do with kids in Sevenoaks and the days out near Sevenoaks round-up.

Frequently asked questions

When do Kent schools go back in September 2026?

Kent County Council’s determined date is Tuesday 1 September 2026. Many Sevenoaks schools go back later because they take training days first: Trinity School and Sevenoaks Primary School open to pupils on Thursday 3 September, Weald of Kent Grammar School has its whole school in on Friday 4 September, and Sevenoaks School begins term on Friday 4 September.

When is October half term 2026 in Kent?

Kent County Council’s half term is Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026. Knole Academy, Trinity School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Sevenoaks School all break a week earlier, on Friday 16 October, and do not reopen to pupils until 2 November or later.

Why do Kent schools have six terms instead of three?

Kent County Council determines a six-term year rather than three terms split by half terms. It is the same total, 195 days for teachers and 190 for pupils, described differently: Terms 1 and 2 are the autumn, 3 and 4 the spring, 5 and 6 the summer.

Do academies have to follow Kent County Council’s term dates?

No. The council determines dates for the schools it maintains. Academies, grammar schools that have converted, and independent schools set their own, and Kent’s own term dates page says term dates for some schools may be different and tells parents to contact the school.

When does the autumn term end in Sevenoaks in 2026?

Friday 18 December 2026 at most schools, with Trinity School finishing at 1.30pm and Weald of Kent Grammar School at 12.30pm. Sevenoaks School, which is independent, ends its Michaelmas term at 1pm on Thursday 10 December.

How many bank holidays fall in the 2026/27 school year?

Nine are listed, but eight of them fall inside a school holiday. Only Monday 3 May 2027 closes schools during term time.

When are the school summer holidays in Kent in 2027?

Kent’s Term 6 ends on Wednesday 21 July 2027 and the holiday runs to Tuesday 31 August 2027, with the 2027/28 year starting on Wednesday 1 September 2027. Individual schools finish on different days: Weald of Kent Grammar School breaks up at 12.30pm on Friday 16 July 2027.

Sources

• Kent County Council, term dates (the determined dates, holiday periods and bank holidays)
• Kent County Council, Determined School Term dates for 2026-27 (PDF: school days per term, the 190 and 195 day rule, bank holiday list)
• Kent County Council, Determined School Term dates for 2027-28 (PDF)
• Knole Academy, term dates and school holidays
• Trinity School, Sevenoaks, term dates
• Weald of Kent Grammar School, term dates (2026/27 dates are in the linked PDF)
• Sevenoaks Primary School, term dates 2026/2027
• Sevenoaks School, key dates

Every date on this page was read from the county’s schedule or the school’s own calendar on 31 August 2026. Schools do move training days during the year, so confirm with your own school before you book anything that cannot be changed.