School Calendar

School Calendar & Timetable

The school year starts in September and ends in June. There is a break of around two weeks at Christmas and one and a half weeks for Easter. There are no half-term holidays as such, but there are short breaks throughout the year which coincide with saints' days and festivals. There are two kinds of timetables, the traditional divided day that allows at least two hours for lunch, or the newer jornada continua, a blocked day which finishes in the early afternoon. Most secondary schools have now adopted this blocked day timetable, so your teenager will be free from around 2 pm every day. Primary schools have a reduced timetable during the months of June and September.

 
Homework

Homework in Primary school is given at the discretion of the teacher, but can be given from the first year of Primary onward. It is the culture in Spain that parents will be involved in helping children with their homework, and Spanish parents who are unable to do this for any reason often pay private tutors to help their children for an hour or so each evening. At Secondary school there is quite a heavy load of homework which require considerable self-discipline on the part of students who wish to do well at school.

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