Hampshire School Term Dates 2026/27 for Waterlooville
The official Hampshire County Council term and holiday dates for the 2026/27 school year, covering Waterlooville, Cowplain, Purbrook, Denmead and Horndean.
For 2026/27, Hampshire's maintained-school calendar runs: autumn term 1 September–18 December 2026 (half-term 26–30 October); spring term 4 January–25 March 2027 (half-term 15–19 February); summer term 12 April–21 July 2027 (half-term 31 May–4 June). Academies, including several Waterlooville-area secondaries, can set their own dates — always check with the school directly.
Hampshire term dates 2026/27
Hampshire County Council sets one term-date calendar each year for its maintained schools, which covers the community schools serving Waterlooville, Cowplain, Purbrook, Widley, Denmead and Clanfield. The dates below are published by Hampshire County Council for the 2026/27 academic year.
Autumn term 2026
The autumn term runs from Tuesday 1 September 2026 to Friday 18 December 2026. The October half-term break falls from Monday 26 October 2026 to Friday 30 October 2026, with pupils returning on Monday 2 November 2026.
Spring term 2027
The spring term runs from Monday 4 January 2027 to Thursday 25 March 2027. The February half-term break falls from Monday 15 February 2027 to Friday 19 February 2027.
Summer term 2027
The summer term runs from Monday 12 April 2027 to Wednesday 21 July 2027, which includes the Easter break beforehand. The late-May/early-June half-term break falls from Monday 31 May 2027 to Friday 4 June 2027.
Academies can set their own dates
These dates apply to Hampshire's community and voluntary-controlled schools. Academies and free schools are not obliged to follow the county calendar and can set their own term dates and inset (staff training) days independently — this affects several secondary schools in the Waterlooville area, including academy-status schools like Horndean Technology College and Oaklands Catholic School. Always check the individual school's own website or newsletter for its confirmed dates rather than assuming the Hampshire county calendar applies, particularly for inset days, which vary school by school even within the maintained sector.
Inset (staff training) days
On top of the term dates above, every school — maintained or academy — adds its own inset days, when pupils don't attend but staff are in for training. Hampshire's guidance is clear that these days are not standardised across the county, so two schools in the same road, or even two schools in the same Havant Federation grouping, can close on completely different dates. The only reliable way to know your child's specific inset days is to check the calendar your own school publishes each year, usually on its website or in a parent newsletter at the start of the academic year, rather than assuming it will match a neighbouring school or a generic list found online.
Planning around bank holidays and the school year
Because the Hampshire calendar is set a year or more in advance, it's worth cross-checking it against national bank holidays when planning family time off, since not every bank holiday necessarily falls within a scheduled school break. The Easter break in 2027 sits within the run-up to the summer term, before the 12 April start date, so families travelling over Easter should confirm the exact start of the summer term with hants.gov.uk rather than assuming a fixed number of weeks off.
Why the county calendar still matters even for academies
Even where an academy sets its own term dates, most schools across Hampshire — including academies — try to stay broadly aligned with the county calendar for the main terms and half-terms, since so many families have children at more than one school, and staff, transport and holiday clubs are all built around the same rough shape of year. Genuine differences tend to show up at the margins: an extra inset day, a slightly different Easter break, or a half-term that starts a day earlier or later. This makes the Hampshire calendar a reliable starting point for most Waterlooville families, but not a substitute for checking your own school's confirmed dates before booking anything non-refundable.
Where to double-check
The definitive, most current version of these dates is published directly by Hampshire County Council at hants.gov.uk/educationandlearning/schoolholidays. If a date here ever looks out of step with what your child's school has sent home, treat the school's own confirmed calendar as correct, since individual schools can vary inset days and, for academies, entire term boundaries.
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