Ashford School Term Dates 2026/27: Half Term Splits

Kent County Council sets one calendar for the schools it runs, and in Ashford the biggest split is in October. The county’s half term is a single week, Monday 26 to Friday 30 October. Four of the borough’s best-known secondaries, both grammars among them, close on Friday 16 October and take a fortnight. A family with one child at a primary and another at Norton Knatchbull or Highworth will have one week in which only one of them is at school.

Every date below was read on 25 September 2026 from the county’s or the school’s own published calendar, linked beside it.

The quick answer

Kent’s 2026/27 year runs from Tuesday 1 September 2026 to Wednesday 21 July 2027. Its October half term is Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, and the Christmas holiday is Monday 21 December to Friday 1 January, with pupils back on Monday 4 January. Norton Knatchbull, Highworth Grammar, Towers School and Homewood School in Tenterden all break up on Friday 16 October and return on Monday 2 November. Ashford School, the independent, finishes for Christmas on Friday 11 December.

Kent County Council’s term dates 2026/27

These are the dates the county has determined for its maintained schools, from its term dates page, which also offers a PDF calendar. The county’s own warning sits at the top of that page: “Term dates for some schools may be different.” Academies, foundation schools and independents set their own.

The bank holidays that fall inside the school year are Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December (the substitute for Boxing Day), Friday 1 January, Good Friday 26 March, Easter Monday 29 March, Monday 3 May, Monday 31 May and Monday 30 August 2027.

Ashford schools that differ from the county

The table sets the big local schools side by side on the dates that matter most for family plans. Where a school’s calendar gives the same dates as the county, it says so.

Sources, school by school:

• The Norton Knatchbull School publishes its year as a one-page PDF. Half term is “19 October to 30 October 2026”. Staff-only INSET days fall on 1 and 2 September, 4 January and Thursday 25 March 2027, so term 4 ends for pupils on Wednesday 24 March. The summer term ends on Wednesday 21 July with an early close at 12.50.
• Highworth Grammar School’s term dates match Norton Knatchbull’s through the autumn, with an early close at 12.35 on Thursday 15 October as well as on 18 December. Its staff development days include Monday 7 June, so girls return after the May half term on Tuesday 8 June.
• Towers School and Sixth Form Centre lists the autumn break on its term dates page: the autumn term ends Friday 16 October and resumes Monday 2 November, with a staff training day on Monday 4 January and pupils back on Tuesday 5 January.
• Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre in Tenterden gives its October holiday as 17 October to 1 November on its term dates page. It also has a staff development day on Friday 27 November, when no pupils are in, and its summer term runs two days longer than the county’s, to Friday 23 July 2027.
• The John Wallis Church of England Academy follows the county’s half terms, according to its 2026/27 PDF, but finishes the year early, on Friday 16 July 2027, with staff development days on 19 to 21 July. Its first three days, 1 to 3 September, were staff-only.
• Ashford School, the independent on East Hill, sets its term dates in three terms. Half term begins at 16.40 on Friday 16 October; the autumn term ends at noon on Friday 11 December; the spring term starts on Tuesday 5 January 2027 and the summer term on Monday 19 April, a week after the county’s.

Wye School states on its term dates page that it has “slightly different term dates from those published by Kent County Council”, but the dates themselves did not load in the page we could read. Check them with the school on 01233 811 110 before booking anything.

What the split means in October

For the families at the four schools above, the October break starts on Monday 19 October, a full week before most primaries. The clocks go back in the middle of it, on Sunday 25 October. What is on locally in both weeks is gathered on our October half term in Ashford page.

Christmas: who finishes when

Most state schools in the borough finish on Friday 18 December, and Norton Knatchbull and Highworth close at 12.35 that day. Ashford School finishes a week earlier. In January, Norton Knatchbull, Highworth, Towers and Ashford School return on Tuesday 5 January, one day after the county’s Monday 4 January, because each uses the Monday as a staff day.

Christmas week brings its own changes to bins, trains and the tip. Our bin collection days page carries last year’s revised Christmas rounds, and the Christmas trains page and tip opening times cover the rest.

What is still to be confirmed

• Wye School’s dates for 2026/27, which we could not read on its site.
• The North School’s dates: its term dates page carried no dates when we read it. It is a Swale Academies Trust school and can set its own.
• Individual primary schools’ INSET days, which each school sets. Kent’s school search links to every school’s own site.

We will add the 2027/28 dates here once the county’s calendar is checked against the schools’ own. Kent has already published its 2027/28 PDF.