Kent County Council school term dates 2017/18

Families may have to wait an extra few days for their holidays next summer as many Kent schools will be breaking up halfway through a week and not on a Friday as in recent years.

This means mums and dads who are used to heading away for their summer holiday on the weekend immediately after schools finish will have a few more days to wait as the last school day as set down by the education authority is Tuesday, July 24.

While independent and private schools can set their own term dates, as can academies and free schools, those which fall under Kent County Council local authority control are likely to follow the term dates laid out by the authority.

However, it’s a different picture in Medway.

There, pupils will finish for the summer on a Friday where the council lists its last day of the summer term as Friday, July 20.

Those schools however will not get as many days off at Christmas as pupils in Kent.

For full details of the Kent and Medway terms for 2017/2018 please click here

Over a school year, pupils are required to attend for 190 days – or 380 sessions.

Five non-contact days, commonly known as development days or staff training days, are also scheduled throughout the year where teachers are required in school but pupils are not.

The mid-week break-up has already seen some Kent schools choose Monday, July 23 and Tuesday, July 24 as two of their development days to enable pupils to break up on a Friday as they may have done in previous years.

A spokesman for KCC said: " In previous years, the Local Government Association (LGA) has coordinated the preparation of a draft standard school year. However, the LGA has decided to stop coordinating the development of draft models for standard school years. This is because only around 40% of areas are now following it, as more academies and free schools determine the term dates for their schools. “

“In March 2016, the Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform agreed to determine the school year term dates for 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. This followed a consultation with all schools and other key stakeholders such as governors (including parent groups), the Diocesan bodies, trade unions and other neighbouring authorities. The general public was also encouraged to participate.