Polish school year 2026/2027: official dates and winter holidays
Short answer: The 2026/2027 school year runs from 1 September 2026 to 25 June 2027, with winter holidays between 18 January and 28 February 2027 depending on the region.
If your child goes to a Polish school, the dates that matter most are when classes start, when the winter and spring breaks fall, and when summer holidays begin. The Ministry of National Education (MEN) publishes the calendar in advance, and the winter break dates differ by region. This guide gives the official school calendar for the 2026/2027 school year, as published by MEN and read on 13 October 2026. Exam dates are set separately by the Central Examination Board, so check your school for those.
The key dates at a glance
- School year starts: 1 September 2026
- Winter holiday break: 23 to 31 December 2026
- Winter school holidays (ferie zimowe): 18 January to 28 February 2027, depending on the voivodeship
- Spring holiday break: 25 to 30 March 2027
- School year ends: 25 June 2027
- Summer holidays: 26 June to 31 August 2027
Winter holidays by region
Poland staggers its two-week winter holidays across three periods,. For 2027, MEN announced:
- 18 to 31 January 2027: Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesia), Łódzkie, Śląskie (Silesia) and Opolskie.
- 1 to 14 February 2027: Mazowieckie (Masovia, which includes Warsaw), Pomorskie (including Gdańsk), Świętokrzyskie and Lubelskie.
- 15 to 28 February 2027: Lubuskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Wielkopolskie (including Poznań), Zachodniopomorskie and Małopolskie (including Kraków).
So a child in Warsaw has holidays from 1 to 14 February, a child in Wrocław or Katowice from 18 to 31 January, and a child in Kraków or Poznań from 15 to 28 February. If you move between regions, check which block applies to your school.
Winter holidays in the main expat cities
Putting the regional list together with the cities most readers live in, the 2027 winter holidays are:
- Warsaw (Mazowieckie): 1 to 14 February 2027
- Gdańsk (Pomorskie): 1 to 14 February 2027
- Wrocław (Dolnośląskie): 18 to 31 January 2027
- Łódź (Łódzkie): 18 to 31 January 2027
- Katowice (Śląskie): 18 to 31 January 2027
- Poznań (Wielkopolskie): 15 to 28 February 2027
- Kraków (Małopolskie): 15 to 28 February 2027
The region is that of the school, not your home address, so a family living near a border should check the school's own announcement.
Christmas, spring and summer breaks
The winter holiday break runs from 23 to 31 December 2026. The spring break is 25 to 30 March 2027. The school year ends on 25 June 2027, and summer holidays last from 26 June to 31 August 2027. School restarts on 1 September 2027 in the usual way, so plan trips around these dates and book early, because the staggered winter holidays and the long summer period are the busiest travel times for families.
Other dates
For adult-education and some vocational schools, the calendar sets different start and end dates. For example, classes in certain vocational, post-secondary and adult schools start on 1 February 2027, and final-year classes in some adult secondary schools end on 8 January 2027. The final classes of general secondary schools, technical schools and some other schools end on 30 April 2027.
Exams
The calendar says the exam dates are set by the director of the Central Examination Board, not by the ministry calendar, and that they will be announced by 20 August 2026. This applies to the eighth-grade exam, the matura (secondary school leaving exam) and the vocational exam. Look at the Central Examination Board's schedule or ask the school for your child's year.
Public holidays during the school year
Public holidays fall on top of this calendar. Our guide to Poland's public holidays shows which days are off in 2026. Schools are closed on those days as well.
When the dates were announced
The winter holiday dates for 2026/2027 were published by the ministry on 16 May 2025, more than a year before the school year began. The ministry sets them under the 2017 regulation on the organisation of the school year, after consulting the voivodes and the school superintendents (kuratorzy oświaty). This means the dates in this guide are the official ones and are not expected to move, though you should still check the ministry page and your school's own notices before you book flights or hotels. The school calendar PDF on gov.pl lists the legal basis for every date, which is useful if a school ever tells you something different.
How to use the calendar
1. Find your voivodeship in the list of winter holiday regions.
2. Put the six dates in the table in your family calendar.
3. If you work, compare them with your employer's leave plan and your paid leave entitlement, which in Poland is 20 or 26 days for employees.
4. Ask the school which days are extra days off, because school directors may set a limited number of additional days off.
Frequently asked questions
When does the school year start in Poland in 2026?
On 1 September 2026, and it ends on 25 June 2027.
When are winter school holidays in 2027?
They run in three periods between 18 January and 28 February 2027, depending on the voivodeship. Warsaw is 1 to 14 February, and Kraków is 15 to 28 February.
When are summer holidays in 2027?
From 26 June to 31 August 2027.
When is the Christmas break?
23 to 31 December 2026.
Who sets exam dates?
The director of the Central Examination Board, who sets them separately from the ministry's calendar.
