School holidays and free days.

Most schools have 40 school weeks and 12 weeks of holiday. Your child also has other days off, like public holidays and study days. When are the school holidays and days off? Who sets the dates? And what about study days?

Which days are children off because of national holidays?

On official public holidays, your child is off from school. The following national holidays close all schools:

• New Year’s day.
• Easter Sunday and Monday.
• Ascension day.
• Pentecost Sunday and Monday.
• Christmas day and the second Christmas day.

Also, almost all schools are closed on King’s day and liberation day.

What about study days?

On study days teachers follow training and make plans for lessons. Usually there are 7 study days per year in primary education, but this can differ per school. Primary schools can have a 4-day school week up to 7 times a year. This is besides the official holidays when the school is closed. A school can decide when the study day takes place. In practice, schools try to spread study days evenly over the year.

Extra scheduled days off

Besides school holidays, official holidays, and study days, schools can plan extra days off. For example, the Friday after ascension day, a local holiday, Good Friday, or the sugar feast. All children are then off school. Also in emergencies or bad weather, the school can close.

Where can I find information about holidays and days off?

All school holidays and days off are in the school guide. You get this at the start of the school year or find it on the school website. Schools yearly share the holiday schedule and planned days off with parents in the school participation council. They have the right to give advice about this.

Experiment with flexible school hours

In some primary schools in the Netherlands, parents can take holidays outside the school holidays. They take part in the experiment Space in education time.

In this experiment, schools have flexible school hours. They can arrange their teaching time more freely.

Schools in the experiment Space in education time can:

• Deviate from the set school holidays.
• Decide on which days they have classes or not.

• Let other professionals teach up to 100 hours per year under conditions.

The government studies if flexible teaching time improves education quality. The experiment runs until 2025.