School Holidays and Term Dates: Set Them Up Once, Maxie Does the Rest
Set up each child's school terms and holidays once. Maxie builds them into your family calendar automatically, and keeps other activities out of the way when school's off.
Try Maxie free →What is School Holidays and Term Dates?
School Holidays means the term dates, half terms and INSET days stop living in a newsletter you can't find. Enter them once per school, and Maxie turns them into calendar blocks, back-to-school events and rules that recurring activities actually follow.
Why families use this
Term dates, INSET days and half terms usually arrive as a PDF or a line in a school newsletter, and then get buried. Meanwhile you're trying to hold in your head when school starts back, when the holidays hit, and whether Tuesday's swimming class is even on this week.
School Holidays turns that scattered information into a living part of the family calendar, so the answer is on the screen rather than in your memory.
Term dates, INSET days and half terms live in a school newsletter or a PDF that gets buried within a week. Then the mental tracking starts: when does school go back, when does the summer break actually begin, and is Tuesday's swimming class even on this week?
Set the school year up once. Maxie keeps the calendar honest from then on.
School Holidays takes the school's academic year and turns it into a living part of your family calendar, for every child, at every school.
How it works
1. Find the school
Search by name, and postcode if you need to narrow it down, then save the school's basic details.
2. Learn the building blocks
A short guided intro explains the four pieces Maxie needs: the Academic Year (first day to last day), Term Times (Autumn, Spring, Summer, or however your school splits it), Holidays (half terms and the summer break), and Single Days Off (INSET days and one-off closures).
3. Enter the dates
With the school's academic year calendar to hand, add the year, then each term, then the holidays and days off.
4. Maxie builds the calendar for you
On confirming, Maxie creates "Back to School" and "Term Ends" events and adds each holiday period as a clear block on the calendar. No manual event creation needed after setup.
What it does for families day to day
- Term time and holidays look different. Both appear on the calendar in their own colour, so you can tell at a glance which one you're in.
- Recurring activities respect school terms. Mark a weekly club as term time only and Maxie skips it during half term and the summer, so the calendar doesn't lie to you.
- Every school, every kid, one calendar. Children at different schools each keep their own term dates, all shown together in the same family view.
- A heads-up before the change. Maxie's AI weekly summary calls out when term ends and holidays begin in plain language, so it's never a surprise.
- Optional UK bank holidays. Turn public holidays on alongside your school-specific dates if it's useful.
- Private to your family. School and term data belongs to your family calendar. It isn't shared or crowdsourced from other families.
Why this is more than a list of dates
Plenty of calendars can hold a date. The difference here is that the rest of Maxie knows what those dates mean.
When a club is term time only, the school year decides whether it appears. When the weekly summary is written, term ending is something worth mentioning. And when a school PDF arrives with next year's dates on it, the terms you've set up are the context Maxie reads it against.
Where this fits with everything else
If the term dates arrive in an email, forward it and let Email to Calendar pull them out. If they arrive as a photo of a printed calendar, Photo to Calendar handles that instead. Either way they land on the same Shared Family Calendar, so both parents are looking at the same school year.
Related features
Shared Family Calendar: The Whole Family, One Calendar
One shared family calendar everyone sees the same version of. Invite a partner, co-parent, grandparents or a childminder, updates land for everyone.
Email to Calendar: Forward It, Maxie Takes It From There
Forward school emails, PDFs or photos to your Maxie address and get checked calendar events back, with duplicates merged and routines spotted automatically.
Add Events From a Photo or File: Snap It, Maxie Reads It
Snap a photo of a flyer, screenshot a text, or upload a school PDF and Maxie reads it, drafts the calendar event and hands it back for you to check.
Add It Once: Weekly Clubs Sorted for the Whole Term
Set up football on Tuesdays or swimming on Thursdays once, and every future session appears automatically, kit list included, all term long.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add my child's school?
Search by name, and by postcode if there are several schools with similar names, then save the school's basic details to your family. You only do this once per school.
What dates does Maxie actually need?
Four things: the academic year (first day to last day), the term times (Autumn, Spring and Summer, or however your school splits it), the holidays such as half terms and the summer break, and any single days off like INSET days or one-off closures. A short guided intro walks you through each one.
Do I have to create the back-to-school and term-end events myself?
No. Once you confirm the dates, Maxie creates 'Back to School' and 'Term Ends' events for you and adds each holiday period as a clear block on the calendar. There's no manual event creation after setup.
Can I see at a glance whether we're in term time or on holiday?
Yes. Term time and holidays are visually distinct on the calendar in their own colour, so a quick look tells you which one you're in.
What about clubs that only run in term time?
Mark a weekly club as term time only and Maxie automatically skips it during half term and the summer break, so the calendar doesn't tell you there's swimming when the pool session isn't running.
We have children at different schools. Does that work?
Yes. Each child's school keeps its own term dates, and they all show together in the same family view. Different schools, different holidays, one calendar.
Will I get a warning before term ends?
Maxie's AI weekly summary calls out when term ends and when holidays begin, in plain language, so the change of routine isn't a surprise on the Sunday night.
Can I add UK bank holidays too?
Yes, public holidays are an optional overlay you can turn on alongside your school-specific dates.
Is our school and term data shared with other families?
No. School and term data belongs to your family calendar. It isn't shared or crowdsourced from other Maxie users.