when do schools in australia have summer break
Summer vacation In Australia, summer officially lasts from December to February, and therefore includes Christmas and New Year holidays. The dates of Australian school holidays (the term used, rather than "vacation") are determined by each state's Department of Education, the Christmas summer holiday being the longest in duration. Typically Christmas summer holiday in Australia last approximately six weeks, usually from late December (depending on school level) to late January. This is significantly shorter than North American summer holiday, but Australian schools also break for 2 weeks at Easter, and in June and September, giving students and teachers a total of twelve weeks of annual holidays. In many public schools, years 10 through 12 will finish before December 15, allowing time to complete exam marking and results. Year 10 commonly finishes at the end of November, Year 11 at the end of October, and year 12 (Senior Year) also at mid or the end of October after 3 weeks of end-of-year exams. This can bring the normal 12 weeks of vacation to 20 weeks of vacation. The intervening periods of school operation without holidays are called "School Terms", each term lasting approximately ten weeks. All Australian states have relatively similar holiday periods between each term, but there is the ability for this to change, as it did in the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, when the first term in Victorian schools was shortened to 6 weeks and the other subsequently extended to 12 weeks due to severe disruptions to the public and private bus networks used by school students. Most private schools in Australia have up to four weeks of additional holidays, due to their longer teaching hours during term.