School Holiday Dates 2011 -12

[haveaniceday]

I am trying to get school holiday dates for my kids. They are enrolled in a new school. Meant to be a 'private Catholic School', all the teachers we spoke to claim not to know when their next holiday is, which I thought a bit odd, referred us to admin. After the Admin staff needed to have a mini conference, they cam up with 17-25 October, then nothing till next Sonkran.

I call BS, I would have thought there would be a week off in July or August, is this normal in Thailand schools.

I thought they would get a week off around New Year as well?

Any imput would be good thanks, wifie doesn't want to ask again as that would be calling them a lier she says, I say booking flights on the correct day is much more important.

[Scott]

Most of the schools issue a calendar of events and dates at the beginning of the school year. It is, of course, subject to change. Unless it is an international school, it will operate under the MOE (or another governmental body). These schools will run roughly from May 18 to September 30 and will probably resume school on October 31 or thereabouts. This is the break between semester 1 and 2. Semester 2 will run until sometime in March.

You might want to ask them the date for the end of semester 1.

For many schools, the teachers will not have the same holidays as the students.

[otherstuff1957]

Here's a link to the Thai national holidays:

Public Holidays

Most schools start in early to mid May and run until the end of the term, usually early October. Then they start up again in late October & run until the end or February or so. Teachers, of course, start & end their terms before and after the students do.

This is just a rough guide, each school sets their own calendar. In Thailand, school directors have much more power than they do in the west and each school's director will decide when the school will open and close. Some directors plan ahead and share their decisions with the teachers, parents and students. Other directors seem to rule by whim and will make last minute decisions as to when their school will open and close.

I'm not surprised that the teachers don't know when the term break will be. They could probably make an educated guess, but they don't want to because the director (or head nun) could make an arbitrary change & then they would feel embarrassed about having given you incorrect information.

[culicine]

Also for the Christmas and New Year break, not all Catholic schools give a holiday then, though most do. That would be from the 24th Dec - 3rd Jan, give or take a day. My school does give a break then. Mid year break is over October - Students generally get 4 weeks; teachers 2 weeks, though that would depend on the school. Some teachers get more time, but my school gives 2 for teachers. Government schools seem to give a slightly longer break mid year, perhaps because then don't give the longer xmas break.

There are some official government holiday schedules on the net. You can search for that. The majority of schools are mean't to give those holidays. Apart from the coming week, the next public holidays are in July. As mentioned, the yearly break for students is over much of march through to mid may. My students are back on the 18th, though teachers already started on the 9th.

I'm not surprised foreign teachers won't tell you when the holidays are - there are quite a few public holidays, and generally we don;t know the exact dates of the other long breaks - though as you can see I can give a rough idea off of the top of my head. Mind you I've been at my school 10 years so that helps a bit:)

[thunder30101]

Dont feel bad, working as a western teacher you would be surprised how many times I have found out about holidays the day before or showed up to an empty school lol.

[haveaniceday]

Many thanks, so the 2 weeks in October is actually prob a month. Will ask the same question next week. I will try the dumb farlang route. !!!