School holidays 2024-2025

Primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands must adhere to the holiday schedule contained in the School Holiday Regulations 2022–2025. You can deviate from the schedule only in special situations, for this you must request permission from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The country's education system provides for 3 periods of compulsory school holidays:

• 2 weeks for Christmas
• 6 weeks in summer
• 1 week in May

Note! Secondary vocational education institutions (middelbaar beroepsonderwijs, MBO), colleges and universities develop the holiday schedule themselves.

Autumn and spring holidays

The schedule of autumn and spring holidays from the government is advisory in nature. Schools may deviate from recommended dates without special permission from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Extra holidays

In addition to holidays, schools may plan additional days off. For example, you can extend the May holidays by one week. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science recommends dates for this: from 19 to 27 April 2025.

School guide (schoolgids)

Accurate information on the vacation schedule in a particular school is contained in the so-called school guide - each school offers such a guide for the convenience of parents. At the beginning of each school year, parents receive a new school guide. Additional information is often also available on the school website.

Regions

For scheduling vacations, the Netherlands is conventionally divided into three regions: Northern, Central and Southern. Shifting the start and end dates of holidays by region makes it possible to prevent overloading of public transport - with the start of the holidays, schoolchildren en masse go on vacation and visit their families.

Holidays in 2024-2025

Principles of plotting

When developing the school holiday schedule, the government tries to take into account the interests of different parties - primarily schools, parents and the tourism sector. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science always coordinates the dates of school holidays with the tourism sector, parent organizations and sectoral councils for primary and secondary education.

Balance

It is important for students to have a balanced distribution of holidays throughout the school year. This means that after 7-8 weeks of schooling, holidays usually come. For example, if the summer holidays in the region end late (late August or early September), then the autumn holidays start later.

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