Seoul

It should be noted that your school year calendar will depend on the type of school your child attends (public or international) and if you choose to send your child to an international school, each school has slightly different holidays, start and end dates and activity days. Always check with the actual school before you enrol your children to decide which has the best calendar fit for your family.

Public school in Korea starts in March and ends around January. Their large vacation is not during the summer (although there is a summer vacation that is approximately one month long) but during Lunar New Years in the beginning of the year. As Lunar New Years is celebrated according to the Lunar Calendar, this may affect the start of vacation for public school students, but the month of February is always vacation as well as part of January and March. Usually around Lunar New Years, public school students get two months of vacation.

International schools do things a bit differently from public schools. Depending on the school’s national representation, holidays, exams and activities will be slightly different. American style schools will have school calendars similar to that of schools in the US, while German, French and British schools will have calendars comparable to schools in their own country. All international schools in Seoul tend to take their long vacation during the summer months with ample time off for the Christmas holidays. Here is an example of a school year calendar for regular Korean schools (All Korean schools follow this calendar).

The days listed below are days that children will not attend school.

2011

2012

Here is an example of an International school calendar (Youngsan International School) which follows the American system :

• August 9th, 2011: First day of school( Half day)
• August 15th, 2011: Liberation day ( no classes)
• September 12th-13th, 2011: Chuseok Holiday (no classes)
• October 14th, 2011: Teacher in-service day(no classes)
• October 27th-28th, 2011 Parent-teacher day (no classes)
• November 25th, 2011: Thanksgiving Day (no classes)
• December 19th, 2011- January 9th, 2012: Christmas Holidays (no classes)
• January 23rd-24th 2012: Lunar New Year( no classes)
• February 17th, 2012: Parent-teacher conference( no classes)
• March 1st-2nd 2012: Korean Independance Day/Teacher in-service( no classes)
• March 19th-March 23rd, 2012: Spring Break (no classes)
• April 6th, 2012: Good Friday (no classes)
• April 30th, 2012: Teacher in-service day( no classes)
• May 1st, 2012: Korean Labor Dat( no classes)
• May 26th,2012: High School Graduation
• May 21st, 2012: Buddha’s Birthday (no classes)
• June 10th, 2012: Faculty workday (no classes)
• June 11th, 2012: Graduation/last school day, end of fourth quarter, end of 2nd semester.