Polish School Holidays 2026/27: The Official Dates for Expats
The essentials: Poland's 2026/27 school year: Christmas break 23-31 December 2026; winter ferie staggered by region - 18-31 January, 1-14 February (Warsaw) or 15-28 February 2027 (Kraków); spring break 25-30 March 2027; classes end 25 June 2027. Announced by the Ministry of Education on 15 May 2026.
If you have children in a Polish school, the national calendar quietly rules your family life: when you can ski, when you can fly home cheaply, when grandparents can visit, and when you suddenly need two weeks of childcare in February. Poland's Ministry of Education announced the official 2026/2027 school-year calendar on 15 May 2026, and it holds one detail that surprises many newcomers: the big winter break, the ferie, falls on different dates depending on which region you live in. This guide lays out the confirmed dates and what they mean in practice for expat families, all checked against the ministry's announcement on 22 October 2026.
The official 2026/2027 calendar
The school year began on 1 September 2026, as it does every year under Poland's school-year regulation, which starts classes on the first of September whenever the calendar allows. The first day is ceremonial as much as educational: children arrive in good clothes with flowers for their form teachers, speeches are made in the gymnasium, and most pupils are home by late morning. The real work starts on day two. The ministry's calendar, published 15 May 2026, then sets the year's fixed breaks. The Christmas break, the zimowa przerwa świąteczna, runs from 23 to 31 December 2026. The spring break, the wiosenna przerwa świąteczna covering Easter, runs from 25 to 30 March 2027, which puts Easter Sunday, 28 March, in the middle of the holiday rather than inside term time. Classes for all students end on 25 June 2027, and the summer holidays, wakacje, run from 26 June to 31 August 2027, a full nine-plus weeks that Polish families traditionally fill with grandparents, summer colonies known as kolonie, and half-day city programmes, with the new school year starting in September 2027. Final-year students in secondary schools finish their classes earlier, on 30 April 2027, ahead of the matura exams, whose exact dates are set separately by the Central Examination Board. For families with an eighth-grader or a matura candidate, that means the exam calendar, not the holiday calendar, dictates the spring, and the exam board's dates are the ones to watch.
Data source: Ministry of Education, official 2026/2027 school-year calendar announced 15 May 2026 (gov.pl/web/edukacja), checked 22 October 2026.
Ferie: the winter break that depends on your postcode
The ferie zimowe are Poland's two-week midwinter break, the single longest interruption of the school year outside summer, and they are staggered across three groups of regions so that the country's ski slopes and roads are not overwhelmed all at once. For 2027 the ministry has confirmed three windows. From 18 to 31 January 2027, schools break in podkarpackie, podlaskie, dolnośląskie, łódzkie, śląskie and opolskie. From 1 to 14 February 2027, it is the turn of mazowieckie, pomorskie, świętokrzyskie and lubelskie, which means Warsaw and Gdańsk families get the middle slot. From 15 to 28 February 2027, the break falls in lubuskie, kujawsko-pomorskie, warmińsko-mazurskie, wielkopolskie, zachodniopomorskie and małopolskie, so Kraków, Poznań and the far northeast and northwest go last.
The staggering exists for a simple reason: when every Polish family with school-age children hits the same mountain resorts in the same fortnight, the Tatras buckle. Spreading the break across six weeks keeps the ski towns busy but survivable, and it means the ferie economy runs from mid-January to the end of February.
The practical consequences are real. If you live in Warsaw, your children are off in the first half of February while Kraków's schools are still working, and vice versa, which matters enormously for booking ski trips, flights and even visits to grandparents in another region. A Warsaw family skiing in late January shares the slopes with the Łódź and Wrocław crowds; in their own window they share them with the rest of mazowieckie and the Tri-City. Families who straddle regions, say one parent commuting to Łódź while the children attend school in Warsaw, need to check which calendar their school actually follows: it is always the region where the school sits, not where you live.
Data source: Ministry of Education, winter break dates for 2026/2027 (gov.pl/web/edukacja/terminy-ferii-zimowych-w-roku-szkolnym-20262027), checked 22 October 2026.
The other days off through the year
Beyond the official breaks, Polish schools close on public holidays, which give families a scattering of long weekends through the year: 11 November for Independence Day, 1 January, 6 January for Epiphany, Easter Monday, 1 and 3 May, and Corpus Christi in late spring. Note that 11 November is treated as a full closure even though it is not a church festival, and when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, many families and schools quietly treat the adjacent Monday or Friday as optional, which is where headteacher days come in. On top of these, each school's headteacher can grant individual days off, the so-called dni dyrektorskie, often used to bridge a public holiday into a longer weekend or around school events. These are announced school by school, usually at the start of the year, so check your school's own calendar before assuming a Friday is a school day. The 1 and 3 May pairing is the classic case: with a headteacher day on 2 May, families regularly get a five-day spring break that never appears on any national calendar.
Data source: school-year regulation practice and ministry calendar information, checked 22 October 2026.
What expat families should know
First, these dates bind public schools. Private and international schools in Poland set their own calendars, and most align only loosely with the national one, often following a British, American or IB rhythm with a longer Christmas break and different half terms, so if your children are in an international school, treat this article as context and get the school's own year plan. Families with one child in each system, not uncommon among expats, should expect at least one week a year where one child is on holiday and the other is not. Second, the ferie create a predictable childcare crunch, and it hits working parents hardest because the two weeks rarely match any adult leave. Cities organise zimowisko, subsidised day-camp programmes run by schools, cultural centres and sports clubs during the break weeks, typically offering a working day's coverage with activities, and they fill fast; watch for sign-ups in the weeks before your region's window, and ask at your child's school first, because many schools run their own half-term programme for their own pupils. Ski camps and commercial winter camps for the ferie weeks open booking months ahead, and the middle and late windows sell out earliest because they cover more of the ski season. Third, if you are planning a trip home, the fixed breaks are your only windows, and everyone else's too: flights around 23 December, the Easter break and late June price up quickly once every family in the country is travelling at once. Booking the Christmas trip in autumn, when the calendar is already official, is the single easiest saving an expat family can make.
Finally, if you are new to the system and your children started in September, the rhythm to internalise is simple: a long autumn term to Christmas, a two-week winter break whose dates depend on your region, a spring term broken by Easter, and an early summer finish at the end of June. One more local habit worth knowing: the last day of school, 25 June 2027, is again ceremonial, with certificates handed out and classes dismissed early, and the first real day of summer freedom is the Saturday after.
Data source: ministry calendar and municipal zimowisko programme practice, checked 22 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
When are the school winter holidays in Warsaw in 2027?
Warsaw is in mazowieckie, which takes its ferie from 1 to 14 February 2027, as announced by the Ministry of Education on 15 May 2026.
When are the school holidays in Kraków in 2027?
Kraków is in małopolskie, in the last window: 15 to 28 February 2027.
Do international schools in Poland follow these dates?
No. Private and international schools set their own calendars; the ministry's dates bind public schools. Always check your school's own year plan before booking travel.
When does the Polish school year end in 2027?
Classes end on 25 June 2027 and the summer holidays run from 26 June to 31 August 2027. Final-year secondary students finish classes on 30 April 2027 ahead of their exams. * Photos: Cover - Krzysztof Popławski, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (a Polish primary school building in December). Body - Miko101, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (a sledding hill in Poznań).
