Start with the official publication.
Council and government pages are the sources for published dates. ukschoolholidays.co.uk is used to discover potential gaps, then checked against the authority publication. A third-party listing does not overrule an official calendar.
Publish what is explicit.
A holiday range, a last school day and a pupil return date are different facts. We keep them separate. A term opening or the Monday after a break is not used to invent a pupil return date.
Keep local exceptions local.
Staff days, school-specific dates and conditional local holidays carry their own labels. General calendar downloads include accepted council-default holiday ranges and explicit pupil closures only.
Make gaps visible.
The current data release was checked on 1 October 2026. Its 416 academic-year calendars include incomplete and unresolved records. Source text matching and structural validation help identify issues but do not certify every interpretation or every school.
Keep the source in reach.
Each local page links to the original calendar and shows the accepted-record check date. Use the report form to flag a date with a publication link; dates are reviewed before being changed.