Three terms, the holiday weeks, and the two days in the second term when the hall is used as an examination centre and the lower grades stay at home.
The term dates for next year are settled and are printed on a card that will go home with every child in the first week. They are also on the board by the gate and on this page, which is the version that will be kept up to date if anything moves.
First term runs from the second week of January to the last week of March, with a week's break in the middle of February. Second term is from the middle of April to the end of June. Third term is from the middle of August to the first week of November. The examination weeks are the last two weeks of each term.
Two days in the second term need explaining because they catch families every year. The hall is used as an examination centre for two days in the middle of May, and on those two days the children in grades one to five stay at home. There is no way round it: the hall is the only room large enough, and using it means the lower grades cannot be taught in the rooms beside it. The dates are on the card and will be reminded on the board a fortnight before.
The school boat for away matches and for the grade ten visits to the neighbouring island runs on the dates listed on the same card. Those are the only days a child from this school is off the island during term time, and a signed note comes home for each one.
One request. If you are planning to travel with your child during term, tell the class teacher rather than the office, and tell them before you go rather than after. A child who is away for three weeks can be given work to take, and a child whose family says nothing is marked absent and the class teacher spends a week telephoning to find out whether something is wrong.
The association's book stall is at the end of the second term, as usual, and the dates for the two grade ten parent meetings about the move to grade eleven will be sent separately in the second term.
