South African Schools Calendar

School Terms and School Holidays 2010 and 2011

The school year starts mid of January and ends at the beginning of December. But dates vary slightly from school to school.

Private schools often add another week either before or after the official state school holidays. The dates below consider the public schools holidays.Please check with the individual schools for exact dates as I can only give the holiday dates published by the Education department.

Therefore these dates are only rough guidelines if your children are in private schools in South Africa. But remember these dates are also good to know even if the holidays of your child's school are different when you want to book your travels or flights.

A school term usually has got 10 weeks of instruction, often the public holidays are incorporated into a short term-break holiday. But there is no longer mid-term break holiday as there is in the UK school calendar.

Please be aware that the dates below are the School Terms of the Western Cape and the coastal provinces of South Africa. The schools in inland provinces like Gauteng start for the first term in 2011 one week earlier.

If you are interested to read more about schooling in Cape Town South Africa, please click here.

School Terms 2010 in Cape Town

Term 1: 13 January – 26 March 2010

------Autumn Holidays-----

Term 2: 12 April – 9 June 2010

------Winter Holidays-----

Term 3: 13 July – 23 September 2010

------Spring Holidays-----

Term 4: 4 October – 10 December 2010

------Summer Break-----

Please note that in 2010 the School holidays in South Africa are at the same dates in both the coastal and inland provinces.

School Terms 2011 in Cape Town

Term 1: 19 January – 1 April 2011

------Autumn Holidays-----

Term 2: 11 April – 24 June 2011

Short Break School Holiday: 22 - 27 April (Easter/Freedom Day)

Extra School Holiday: Friday 17 June (Youth Day Weekend)

------Winter Holidays------

Term 3: 18 July – 30 September 2011

Extra School Holiday: Monday 8 August (Women's Day Weekend)

------Spring Holidays------

Term 4: 10 October – 9 December 2011

------Summer Break-----

ExpatCapeTown Advice: Please check out your child's school holiday calendar for 2011. We only recently found out that our kids' school has totally different school term dates, due to Easter being so late in 2011 and several other public holidays.

So our children will only be off school when the other schools already are back to school! Well, some might find this very disturbing especially if they have kids are in different schools, but others might be very pleased as they can travel in the off-peak-season.

So know your term dates and plan your holidays carefully for 2011!

If you are looking for a really lovely Family Calendar for 2011, check out ClipClop. They have got great South African calendars with wonderful designs. The company is located in Cape Town and the calendars are available at many local shops.

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