Qatar school calendar 2026-27: terms, holidays and exam periods

What the ministry calendar sets

In 2025 the Ministry of Education and Higher Education approved a multi-year school calendar for 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28. According to the ministry's announcement, it took account of a Shura Council recommendation to align holidays in government and private schools. Two changes matter most to families: the mid-year break is fixed in the last third of December for everyone, and first-semester final exams in government schools are held before Qatar National Day on 18 December.

Private schools publish their own detailed term dates within that framework, which is why a British school, an Indian school and an American school in Doha can start on slightly different days. The ministry's private education department licenses and oversees them.

Example: a British-curriculum private school in Doha, 2026-27

These are Sherborne School Qatar's published dates, shown as a worked example of how a private school applies the national calendar. Your school's dates may differ.

Source: Sherborne School Qatar term dates for 2026-2027, checked October 2026. Qatar Living reports that DPS-Modern Indian School Doha also has its mid-term break from 25 to 29 October and a winter break from 20 to 31 December.

National and religious dates in 2026-27

Ramadan and Eid dates are estimates from the Hijri calendar published by Bahrain's ministry and depend on moon sighting.

Exam periods for each kind of school

Government-school students sit first-semester finals before National Day, and second-semester finals at the end of the year. The ministry publishes the exact exam timetables for each grade.

Private-school students follow their curriculum's exam calendar. Sherborne warns parents of Years 11 to 13 that external exams can fall on Fridays, during Ramadan and on national holidays, and can run to the end of June 2027. IB Diploma exams run from late April to 18 May 2027, AP exams from 3 to 14 May, and Cambridge and Edexcel summer exams from late April into June.

Planning lessons around the Qatari year

The December break comes straight after first-semester exams, which makes it a good time to review the results calmly and fix gaps before the second half of the year. During Ramadan, online lessons can move to after iftar, and in the spring families with exam-year children often step up from one to two lessons a week. LiveTutor tutors teach the curricula they list, including British, IB and American courses.