Overview school holiday dates 2025-2026

The Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap – OCW (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) fixes the dates of the main school holidays and gives advisory dates for spring and autumn holidays. Your school may deviate from these. The school guide will tell you when your school's holidays are.

The following holiday dates in the 2025-2026 school year are for basisonderwijs (primary education), speciaal onderwijs (special education) and middelbaar onderwijs (secondary education). In middelbaar beroepsonderwijs – MBO (secondary vocational education) and tertiary education institutions are free to set their own holiday dates.

School holidays 2025-2026

For school holidays, the Netherlands is divided into  3 regions: Noord, Centraal and Zuid.

Regio Noord Regio Midden Regio Zuid

Herfstvakantie
(autumn holidays)

18 October –
26 October 2025
18 October –
26 October 2025
11 October –
19 October 2025

Kerstvakantie
(Christmas holiday)

20 December 2025 –
4 January 2026
20 December 2025 –
4 January 2026
20 December 2025 –
4 January 2026

Voorjaarsvakantie
(spring holiday)

21 February –
1 March 2026
14 February –
22 February 2026
14 February –
22 February 2026

Meivakantie
(May holiday)

25 April –
3 May 2026
25 April –
3 May 2026
25 April –
3 May 2026

Zomervakantie
(summer holiday)

4 July –
16 August 2026
18 July –
30 August 2026
11 July –
23 August 2026