The kids are now heading back to school after a long Summer break. Hopefully, everyone is ready to go and excited to start the brand-new school year. Here, you will find the outline for the school year including a list of the holiday days to help you to plan ahead.
Even if you don’t currently have any kids in the school system, this information will allow you to plan around school holidays and avoid the crowds. This list however doesn’t apply to students of international school as the schools set their own dates.
The Spanish school year in starts at different times depending on the age of the child attending.
Here are the starting dates for the different age groups:
- Pre-school starts on September 1st
- Primary/elementary school starts on September 10th
- Secondary school and Spanish Baccalaureate starts on September 15th
- Official Language School and Superior Grade Formative Courses start on September 20th.
The school year ends on June 24th for the Summer break.
Spanish school holidays are set by their local autonomous communities, so the dates can vary slightly, however usually not by much. This list is for the province of Granada.
It’s also worth mentioning that each town has the right to choose one or two extra holiday days these can be during the school year or over the year at any point, so keep your eyes open for those dates.
Puentes
It’s important to mention the Spanish concept of “puente”. The literal translation is “a bridge”. This is when for example the public holiday is on a Thursday it’s highly likely that Friday will become a “puente” and there will not be any school on Friday either. This also applies to Tuesdays, but not Wednesday as “puentes” are usually just one day.
The three main holidays are Christmas, Easter and Summer.
Unlike a lot of other European countries, there are no half-term holidays.
- Christmas break: 24th December 2021 – 10th January 2022
- Easter break: 10th April 2022 – 17th April 2022
- Summer break: Starts on the 24th June 2022 and lasts until September that year.
The national and regional holidays are as follows:
- Tuesday 12th October 2021 – National Day of Spain
- Monday 1st November 2021 – All Saints’ Day
- Monday 6th December 2021 – Spanish Constitution Day
- Wednesday 8th December 2021 – The Immaculate Conception
- Thursday 6th January 2022 – Epiphany of the Lord
- Monday 28th February 2022 – Andalusia Day
- Thursday 14th April 2022 – Maundy Thursday
- Friday 15th April 2022 – Good Friday
- Monday 2nd May 2022 – The following Monday after Spain’s Labour Day
(Remember those one or two extra dates decided by your local Town Hall).
Here you can find the downloadable academic calendar from the Junta de Andalucía with all those important days in one convenient PDF: