Spain School Calendar ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₀₂₆: Holidays by Autonomous Community

Spain does not run a single national school calendar. Each of the 17 autonomous communities sets its own term dates, which means holiday windows can differ by up to two weeks depending on where you are. If you are planning a family trip around the calendario escolar 2025 2026 España — or trying to work out when your children’s Spanish school breaks up — this is what you need to know.

How Spain’s School Calendar Works by Region

Spain’s education system is decentralised. The Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes sets national minimum requirements — currently 175 school days per year for most stages — but each community (comunidad autónoma) publishes its own annual calendar resolution in its official bulletin (boletín oficial).

According to campamentos.info, the variables that differ between communities include:

• Start and end dates for Educación Infantil, Primaria, ESO and Bachillerato
• Length of Christmas and Easter holiday windows
• Whether the community observes a Semana Blanca (a mid-winter half-term break) or a Carnaval holiday
• Local patron saint days (festivos locales), which can vary even within the same community

For visiting British and Irish families, the key practical point is this: do not assume all schools in Spain finish on the same date. A colegio (primary school) in Madrid may break up a week earlier or later than one in Seville or the Canary Islands. Always verify dates against the specific community your destination falls under.

The school stages to be aware of are Educación Infantil (ages 3–6, second cycle; first cycle is guardería/nursery), Educación Primaria (ages 6–12), ESO (secondary, ages 12–16) and Bachillerato (pre-university, ages 16–18). Each stage can have slightly different end dates within the same community.

Key National Holidays All Communities Share

Despite the regional variation, Spain does observe a fixed set of national public holidays that fall inside the school year across all communities. These are established by the government and published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE).

Autumn and early winter 2025: - 12 October 2025 — Fiesta Nacional de España (National Day) - 1 November 2025 — All Saints’ Day (Día de Todos los Santos) - 6 December 2025 — Constitution Day (Día de la Constitución) - 8 December 2025 — Immaculate Conception (Inmaculada Concepción) - 25 December 2025 — Christmas Day

New year and spring 2026: - 1 January 2026 — New Year’s Day - 6 January 2026 — Epiphany (Día de Reyes) — note that this is the main gift-giving day for Spanish children, not Christmas Day - Good Friday (Viernes Santo) — a national school closure - 1 May 2026 — Labour Day (Día del Trabajo)

On top of these national days, each community adds two or three regional festivos, and individual municipalities add their own local holidays — typically the town’s patron saint day. In practice, Spanish school children usually have 12 to 15 non-teaching days within term time, not counting the main holiday blocks.

The 6–8 December block is one to watch. When Constitution Day (6 December) and the Immaculate Conception (8 December) fall in a way that creates a puente (a bridging long weekend), schools often take the entire week off. This is a popular domestic travel period and hotel prices in beach and city destinations can spike accordingly.

Regional School Holiday Dates ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₀₂₆

Here are the confirmed or published dates for the regions most relevant to UK and Irish families. Always cross-check against the official consejería de educación website for the relevant community, as some dates may be adjusted at local level.

Madrid

Madrid’s ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₀₂₆ end-of-year dates are as follows:

• Educación Infantil (second cycle), Primaria and Educación Especial: 19 June 2026
• ESO, Bachillerato and Formación Profesional: 19 June 2026
• Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas (official language schools): 25 June 2026
• Escuelas Infantiles (publicly funded nurseries and guarderías): 31 July 2026

The academic year typically starts in the first week of September. Madrid also observes 2 November (Día de la Almudena, the city’s patron saint) as a local festivo.

Andalucía

Andalucía’s school calendar covers the Costa del Sol, Málaga, Sevilla, Granada and the main southern beach resorts. For ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₀₂₆:

• Infantil and Primaria: Start early-to-mid September 2025; end late June 2026
• ESO and Bachillerato: Start mid-September 2025; end late June 2026
• Christmas break: Approximately 22 December 2025 to 7 January 2026
• Semana Santa (Easter) 2026: Easter Sunday falls on 5 April 2026; Semana Santa runs the preceding week

Málaga specifically observes a Semana Blanca (a short mid-term winter break in February) — relevant if you have children enrolled in schools in that province.

Canary Islands

The Gobierno de Canarias Consejería de Educación publishes its annual calendar resolution each spring. The islands follow the national holiday framework but add their own regional festivos, including Día de Canarias on 30 May. The Canaries’ climate means the academic pattern broadly mirrors the mainland, though individual island municipalities may have additional local days.

Other Key Regions

• Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca): Calendar managed by the Conselleria d’Educació i Universitats. Broadly similar to mainland patterns with local additions.
• Catalonia: Operates its own calendar via the Departament d’Educació. La Diada (11 September) is the regional day; it typically marks the very start of term rather than a holiday within it.
• Valencia: Includes the Las Fallas festival (March) in its regional festivos, with school closures during the main fallas week.

Half-Term and Long Weekend Breaks to Know

Spain does not have a standardised half-term in the British sense. Instead, the mid-term break calendar is built around puentes and, in some communities, a Semana Blanca or Carnaval closure.

Key mid-term patterns to plan around:

• Puentes in autumn: The 12 October and 1 November national holidays both generate long weekends. When they fall on a Thursday, schools often bridge to the following Monday.
• December puente: The 6–8 December block (Constitution Day and Immaculate Conception) is the most significant mid-term break of the autumn term. Many schools take the whole week off.
• Semana Blanca: A mid-February week’s break, observed in Cantabria, Asturias and parts of Andalucía (including Málaga). Not universal — check the specific community.
• Carnaval: February/March. Official school holiday in the Canary Islands and some mainland communities.
• Local fiestas: Every municipality has a fiesta mayor (the town’s main annual festival). These are usually a day or two and do not appear in the regional calendar — check the local ayuntamiento (town hall) website.

SpainEasy’s expat guide notes that Spain has fewer structured mid-term breaks than the UK, offset by more scattered single-day festivos throughout the year. The net result is roughly comparable total holiday time, just distributed differently.

Planning a Family Trip Around School Holidays

Understanding the calendario escolar 2025 2026 España helps you predict when Spanish families will be travelling — and price and crowd levels at popular destinations.

Busiest periods for domestic Spanish tourism:

1. Late June through August — peak summer; schools finish from mid-June onwards and the entire country is on holiday by July
2. Christmas fortnight — roughly 22 December to 7 January
3. Semana Santa — particularly intense in Andalucía; Seville, Córdoba and Málaga are very busy
4. Long weekends in October, November and December — popular for urban short breaks

Quieter windows for visiting families:

• Late September and early October — Spanish schools are back, temperatures remain warm in the south, beach crowds have thinned
• First two weeks of June — before Spanish summer holidays begin, but warm enough for the coast
• Second half of January to mid-February — outside Carnival regions, this is low season across most of Spain

If you are visiting during Semana Santa in Andalucía, see our Semana Santa guide for families visiting Spain for practical advice on procession routes and managing the crowds with young children.

For accommodation that holds its quality during peak Spanish school holiday periods on the south coast, our guide to family hotels on the Costa del Sol covers options with good child facilities and flexible booking terms.

Frequently Asked Questions About Spanish School Terms

When does the Spanish school year start in 2025? Most communities start in the first or second week of September 2025. Andalucía’s colegios typically begin around 10–11 September for Infantil and Primaria; Madrid usually starts in the first week of September.

When do Spanish primary schools finish for summer 2026? The majority of colegios de primaria finish between 19 and 23 June 2026, depending on the community. In Madrid, the confirmed end date for Primaria is 19 June 2026. Publicly funded guarderías and Escuelas Infantiles in Madrid remain open until 31 July 2026.

Are school holiday dates the same across all of Spain? No. Each of the 17 autonomous communities sets its own calendar. National holidays are shared, but term start and end dates, Christmas breaks and Easter windows can differ by up to two weeks between regions.

Where do I find the official calendar for a specific region? Each community’s Consejería de Educación publishes an annual resolution. For Madrid, check the Comunidad de Madrid education portal; for the Canary Islands, the Gobierno de Canarias education site; for Andalucía, the Junta de Andalucía.

Do international schools in Spain follow the same calendar? Not necessarily. British and American international schools often run a September-to-June academic year with UK or US holiday patterns, which may not align with Spanish state school dates. Always check directly with the school.

What documents do I need to enrol my child in a Spanish state school? You will need an NIE (foreigner ID number) for the enrolling parent, proof of empadronamiento (local registration at the ayuntamiento), and in most cases a tarjeta sanitaria (health card). Our full guide to enrolling children in Spanish state schools covers the process step by step.

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