Do you know some school systems around the world only give kids two weeks off a year, total?! Meanwhile here in Australia we get five separate holiday stretches. So how many weeks does that actually leave for school? We crunched the numbers so you don’t have to!
Since the term structure is pretty much the same in every state, we’re using NSW as our example again — and here’s exactly how many weeks students are in the classroom in 2026.
How many School Weeks in a Year in Australia?
There are 38.8 School Weeks in a Year in Australia. Term 2 is the long one at 10.6 weeks, and Term 1 is the shortest at 8.8 weeks — mostly because school doesn’t kick off until February!
| School Term | Term Dates (NSW) | School Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Term 1 | Monday 2 February – Thursday 2 April 2026 | 8.8 weeks |
| Term 2 | Wednesday 22 April – Friday 3 July 2026 | 10.6 weeks |
| Term 3 | Tuesday 21 July – Friday 25 September 2026 | 9.8 weeks |
| Term 4 | Tuesday 13 October – Thursday 17 December 2026 | 9.6 weeks |
| Total School Weeks | 38.8 weeks |
Term date data from the official NSW Department of Education website.
Do the maths the other way and that’s around 13.2 weeks of holidays across the year — no wonder it never feels like there’s much school left once you get past the summer break!
How many Weeks in a School Term?
There are approximately 10 Weeks in a School Term in Australia — though as you can see above, it’s never exactly 10, it just rounds out that way once you average all four terms together.
FAQs
Students attend school Monday to Friday. Every now and then a school will run something on a Saturday, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
Because there are five separate breaks built into the calendar rather than one long summer holiday, and terms almost never land on an exact multiple of 7 days — that’s how you end up with numbers like 38.8 instead of a clean 40.
School runs for 13 years in total — usually 7 to 8 years of primary school, 3 to 4 years of high school, and then Years 11 and 12 to finish things off.
Not quite! Every state runs four terms and five holiday periods, but the exact start and finish dates can differ by a week or two depending on where you are — so always double check your own state’s calendar rather than assuming NSW dates apply.
Related post – How many School Days in a Year in Australia?