Melbourne School Holidays 2026

Victoria public holidays 2026

Every school in Melbourne closes on Victorian public holidays. Victoria has its own regional days on top of the national holidays. The confirmed 2026 dates are below.

The AFL Grand Final eve public holiday date is confirmed by the state once the AFL fixture is set, so treat 25 September as provisional. Several of these holidays fall within school terms, giving Melbourne families occasional long weekends without using term-break days.

Victorian term dates 2026 and into 2027

Victorian government schools work four terms across the 2026 calendar year. The 2026 dates are confirmed by the Department of Education. Students start Term 1 on Wednesday 28 January, the day after a teacher curriculum day.

Independent and Catholic schools in Melbourne set their own start and finish dates within a few days of these and add their own pupil-free days, so check your school's published calendar. Australia's national framework is set out in our Australia country guide.

International school term dates

Melbourne differs from most expat cities because there is no large separate international-school sector. Most expat children attend mainstream government, Catholic or independent schools on the southern-hemisphere calendar above. The nuances worth knowing:

• IB schools in Melbourne run the same four Victorian terms; the IB Diploma exam window sits in November, near the end of the year, rather than in the northern-hemisphere May.
• Schools serving specific expat communities, such as a Japanese or German school, may follow their home-country calendar, which means a northern-hemisphere year that diverges sharply from the Victorian one.
• Families arriving mid-year from the northern hemisphere often enter at the start of Term 3 in July, roughly the midpoint of the Australian year.

The practical headline is the hemisphere flip: a child moving from London or Dubai to Melbourne shifts from a September start to a January start, which can mean a part-year placement on arrival. For the curriculum landscape, see our curriculum guides.

Planning the year

Three practical notes for Melbourne. First, the long summer break over Christmas and January is peak holiday season across Australia, so domestic travel and coastal accommodation book out months ahead. Second, school fees at independent schools are billed per term, so the late-January start of the year is when the first and largest invoice lands; our international school fees in Melbourne guide covers the tiers and timing. Third, the Year 12 VCE and IB exam season runs through late October and November, so the final weeks of Term 4 are exam-heavy for senior students. The autumn and spring two-week breaks are the easiest windows for overseas family visits.

Common questions

When do schools break up in Melbourne? Victorian government schools finish on 18 December 2026 for the summer break. Within the year, terms end on 2 April, 26 June and 18 September.

How long is the summer holiday in Melbourne? The summer holiday runs from 19 December 2026 to late January 2027, about six weeks, falling over Christmas because Australia is in the southern hemisphere.

When does the 2026 school year start in Melbourne? Term 1 starts on 27 January for teachers, with students starting on Wednesday 28 January 2026.

Do Melbourne schools follow a January to December year? Yes. The southern-hemisphere calendar starts in late January and ends in December, the opposite of the northern-hemisphere pattern.

Related guides

• Melbourne city guide
• International school fees in Melbourne
• Australia country guide