How to Add School Holidays to Google Calendar (and Apple Calendar and Outlook)

Why bother adding school holidays to your calendar?

Most parents know the rough shape of the school year, but the details catch people out every time. Half-terms shift by a week depending on your county. Scottish schools break up a full month before English ones in summer. Northern Ireland has its own bank holiday pattern. If you rely on memory or a paper list pinned to the fridge, you will eventually book a dentist appointment on the first day of term, or miss the window to request annual leave before your colleagues snap it up.

Adding school holidays directly to Google Calendar solves this permanently. The dates sit alongside your work meetings, family commitments, and travel plans, so conflicts are obvious at a glance. You get reminders before each break, and if you share the calendar with a partner or co-parent, everyone is looking at the same information.

This guide covers three ways to do it, from the quickest (one click on this site) to the most flexible (subscribing to a live feed that updates automatically).

Method 1: Use the "Add to Calendar" button on this site

The fastest route is to use the built-in calendar export on SchoolHolidays.org.uk. Every county page, school page, and holiday type page has an "Add to Calendar" button in the header. Clicking it downloads an .ics file containing all the term dates for that area. You can then import this file directly into Google Calendar.

Here is how to import an .ics file into Google Calendar on desktop:

1. Click "Add to Calendar" on your county page (for example, Kent or Essex) to download the .ics file.
2. Open Google Calendar in your browser.
3. Click the gear icon in the top right, then select Settings.
4. In the left sidebar, click Import and export.
5. Under "Import", click Select file from your computer and choose the .ics file you downloaded.
6. Choose which calendar to add the events to (your main calendar, or a new one called "School Holidays" if you prefer to keep them separate).
7. Click Import. The holidays will appear immediately.

On an Android phone, the process is similar: download the .ics file, open it from your downloads folder, and Google Calendar will prompt you to import it automatically.

On iPhone, the .ics file will open in Apple Calendar by default. If you want it in Google Calendar instead, you need to use the desktop method above, or follow Method 2 below.

Method 2: Subscribe to a live calendar feed (recommended)

Importing an .ics file is a one-time snapshot. If the dates are updated (for example, if a school announces a change to its inset days), your calendar will not reflect that. Subscribing to a live feed solves this: Google Calendar checks the feed periodically and pulls in any changes automatically.

To subscribe to a calendar feed in Google Calendar:

1. Find the calendar URL for your county or school on SchoolHolidays.org.uk. Look for the "Subscribe" or "Copy calendar link" option on the county or school page.
2. Open Google Calendar on desktop.
3. In the left sidebar, click the + icon next to "Other calendars".
4. Select From URL.
5. Paste the calendar URL and click Add calendar.

The calendar will appear in your sidebar. Google Calendar typically syncs subscribed calendars every 8 to 24 hours, so updates are not instant, but they will arrive without any action on your part.

Tip: Give the calendar a distinctive colour (right-click the calendar name in the sidebar and choose a colour) so school holidays stand out visually from your work and personal events.

Method 3: Add individual holidays manually

If you only want to add a handful of specific dates rather than an entire term calendar, adding them manually gives you the most control. This is useful if, for example, you only care about the summer holiday and Christmas break and do not want your calendar cluttered with every half-term.

1. Look up the dates you need on the relevant county page. For example, Summer holidays 2026 lists every LEA's break-up and return date.
2. In Google Calendar, click on the start date of the holiday.
3. Type a name (for example, "Summer holidays start") and set it as an all-day event.
4. Click More options to set the end date and add a reminder if you want one.
5. Repeat for the return-to-school date.

The downside of this approach is that you need to update the events manually if dates change, and you have to repeat the process each year. For most families, Method 1 or Method 2 is more practical.

Adding school holidays to Apple Calendar and Outlook

The .ics file format is universal, so the same file downloaded from this site works in Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and any other calendar application.

Calendar app	How to import .ics	How to subscribe to a feed
Google Calendar	Settings > Import and export > Import	Other calendars > From URL
Apple Calendar (Mac)	File > Import	File > New Calendar Subscription
Apple Calendar (iPhone)	Open .ics file from Files or Mail	Settings > Calendar > Accounts > Add Account > Other > Add Subscribed Calendar
Outlook (desktop)	File > Open and Export > Import/Export > Import an iCalendar	Add calendar > From internet
Outlook (web)	Add calendar > Upload from file	Add calendar > Subscribe from web

Sharing a school holiday calendar with your partner or co-parent

If you and your partner both use Google Calendar, the easiest approach is for one person to create a dedicated "School Holidays" calendar and then share it with the other. Any changes either person makes will be visible to both.

To share a Google Calendar:

1. In Google Calendar, hover over the calendar name in the left sidebar and click the three-dot menu.
2. Select Settings and sharing.
3. Under "Share with specific people", click Add people and enter the other person's Google account email address.
4. Set their permission to "Make changes to events" if you want them to be able to edit, or "See all event details" if you just want them to view.
5. Click Send. They will receive an email invitation to add the calendar.

If you and your co-parent use different calendar apps (for example, one uses Google and one uses Apple), the subscribed feed approach in Method 2 is more practical. Both people subscribe to the same URL independently, and both get the same updates.

Which county should I use?

In England, school holidays are set by the local education authority (LEA), not the school itself (with some exceptions for academies and free schools). This means that two schools in the same county will usually have identical term dates, but two schools in neighbouring counties may differ by a week or more.

If you are not sure which LEA your school belongs to, the easiest way to check is to search for your school directly on this site. Every school page shows the LEA it belongs to and links to the full term dates for that authority.

For families with children at schools in different LEAs (which can happen when siblings attend schools on either side of a county boundary), you can add multiple calendars and display them simultaneously in Google Calendar using different colours.

A note on estimated dates

Not all local authorities publish their term dates for the following academic year at the same time. Some councils confirm dates 18 months in advance; others wait until the spring. Where dates have not yet been officially confirmed, SchoolHolidays.org.uk marks them as Estimated based on the typical pattern for that authority.

If you add estimated dates to your calendar, it is worth checking back in the autumn to confirm them before booking anything non-refundable. The county pages are updated as soon as official dates are published, and subscribed calendar feeds will reflect those updates automatically.

Get started

Find your county or school using the search bar on the homepage, or browse by nation using the navigation at the top of the page. Every county page has an "Add to Calendar" button ready to use.

• England term dates 2026
• Scotland term dates 2026
• Wales term dates 2026
• Northern Ireland term dates 2026

If you found this guide useful, the Border Hack guide explains how to use the difference between Scottish and English summer holidays to save hundreds of pounds on family travel.