SA School Holidays 2026: Complete Calendar & Term Dates

SA school holidays 2026, taken directly from the Department for Education’s own term dates page: Term 1 runs Tuesday 27 January to Friday 10 April. Term 2 is Monday 27 April to Friday 3 July. Term 3 is Monday 20 July to Friday 25 September. Term 4 is Monday 12 October to Friday 11 December. Unlike some states, South Australia publishes a single statewide calendar — there’s no country/metropolitan split to worry about.

SA school terms 2026 — the full table

The four holiday breaks

South Australia is unusually tidy compared to other states: the three mid-year breaks are all exactly 16 days, and the Department publishes all four as clean Saturday-to-Sunday blocks rather than the messier, narrower “official label” some other states use. There’s no separate school-development-day carve-out muddying the picture here.

The Department has also already confirmed 2027 dates: Term 1 runs 27 January to 9 April; Term 2, 26 April to 2 July; Term 3, 19 July to 24 September; Term 4, 11 October to 10 December.

Catholic, independent and other non-government schools

Everything above is the South Australian state school calendar. Catholic and independent schools set their own dates rather than automatically following it — most stay close, but differences of a week or more at Term 1’s start or Term 4’s finish are common. Treat this page as a reference point only if your child is at a Catholic or independent school, and check your own school’s calendar directly. We cover typical variations in our Catholic school holidays 2026 guide.

How South Australia compares with other states

Every state and territory sets its own school calendar independently, so South Australia’s dates won’t line up exactly with anywhere else — typically by a few days to two weeks at each term boundary. South Australia’s Term 1 is one of the longer ones nationally, running through to 10 April, while Term 4 finishes comparatively early on 11 December. If you’re coordinating travel with family interstate, check that state’s own page rather than assuming: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, and the ACT.

Public holidays around SA's school terms in 2026

Worth noting: Good Friday and Easter Monday both fall inside Term 1 in South Australia in 2026, rather than during the Autumn break as they do in some other states — because SA’s Term 1 runs all the way to 10 April, later than most states, Easter lands mid-term rather than at the boundary.

Taking your child out of school during term time

South Australia handles this through a travel exemption, sought directly from your child’s enrolled school before you go. For longer periods away where a travel exemption isn’t suitable, the Department’s alternative is enrolling your child in Open Access College — SA’s dedicated distance education provider — for the period you’re travelling, so learning continues rather than pausing entirely. Talk to your school as early as possible once your travel dates are set; the exact requirements depend on how long you’ll be away.

Planning around the breaks

• Vacation care places fill early, especially for the Summer break — ask your regular before/after-school-care provider what they run over each break as soon as dates firm up.
• The Child Care Subsidy applies to vacation care for eligible families the same way it applies to regular care — check your own rate through Services Australia rather than a flat figure quoted elsewhere.
• Easter falls mid-Term-1 in SA in 2026, not during a school break — if you’re planning an Easter trip, that’s a term-time absence to arrange with the school, not a holiday-period trip.
• Summer is the break to book earliest for, since every SA family is trying to travel in the same window.

If you’re new to Australia and still working out how school enrolment, OSHC and the term system fit together day to day, our homepage indexes the rest of our settling-in guides.

Frequently asked questions