SG School HolidaysHow to Plan Your 2026 Annual Leave Around Singapore's School Holidays
Most working parents in Singapore find out about a school break the week before it starts, when the kids announce they are home and the childcare scramble begins. It does not have to go that way. The 2026 MOE calendar has been published since July 2025, so you can book early, get the dates you want, and be off at the same time as your children instead of a fortnight apart.
Before the planning, one correction that changes the arithmetic.
You probably have more leave than you are counting
Parents plan this out of one bucket. There are two.
Childcare leave is a separate statutory entitlement, not a slice of your annual leave. For a child under 7 who is a Singapore citizen, MOM's entitlement is 6 days a year for each parent, after three continuous months with your employer. The first 3 days are paid by the employer and the fourth to sixth by the Government, capped at $500 a day including CPF. It is capped at 42 days per child across their childhood.
If the child is not a Singapore citizen, the Employment Act entitlement is 2 days a year for each parent, employer-paid, capped at 14 days per child.
Two working parents of a citizen child therefore have 12 days between them before touching annual leave. Once your youngest turns 7 that becomes 2 days of extended childcare leave each, and with children on both sides of 7, MOM caps each parent at 6 days a year in total, so the two schemes do not stack. Twelve days is most of a short school break already covered, and it is the number most household plans leave out.
Annual leave sits on top of that: 7 days in your first year, rising by one a year to 14 for employees covered by the Employment Act.
The four 2026 breaks, with the real dates
Primary and secondary dates, from the MOE school terms and holidays announcement for 2026. JC and MI differ at the start of the year and at the end, so check your child's level on the 2026 calendar.
| Break | Dates | Length | Realistic plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| March | 14 to 22 March | 9 days | Take the short break whole, or a few days of it |
| June | 30 May to 28 June | 30 days | Pick the one week that matters |
| September | 5 to 13 September | 9 days | Keep it light and close to home |
| Year-end | 21 November to 31 December | 41 days | Book the single travel week |
The June and year-end breaks are 30 and 41 days. No leave balance covers those and you should not try. The goal is different per break: the short ones can be taken whole, the long ones need one good week with camps, grandparents and ordinary downtime around it.
Budget the split in January, not October
Fourteen days feels like plenty in January and nothing by October. Decide the shape early:
- A few days across the March break.
- One week in June.
- One week at the year-end.
- A handful held back for long weekends, the sick child and the school event you did not know about.
Childcare leave is the part to spend first where it fits, because it cannot be carried forward or encashed and lapses at the end of each 12-month period you agree with your employer, which need not be the calendar year.
Then let the public holidays do the lifting
Singapore gazettes eleven public holidays, and the ones that fall beside a weekend cost nothing. A holiday on a Tuesday is one leave day from a four-day break; a Thursday works the same way with the Friday. The gazetted dates come from data.gov.sg, the year's bridges are listed in the long weekends guide, and the leave optimizer ranks every one of them by how many days off each leave day buys.
Pair that with the school calendar and the good weeks pick themselves: a school break that already contains a public holiday is the cheapest week of the year to take off. The childcare gap planner does the opposite check, the working days when school is closed and the office is not.
Common questions
How many days of childcare leave do I get in Singapore? Six days a year for each parent of a Singapore citizen child under 7, after three continuous months with your employer. Two days a year if the child is not a citizen. It is separate from annual leave.
Who pays for childcare leave? For a citizen child, your employer pays the first 3 days and the Government pays the fourth to sixth, capped at $500 a day including CPF. For a non-citizen child, the employer pays both days.
When are the 2026 school holidays? 14 to 22 March, 30 May to 28 June, 5 to 13 September, and 21 November to 31 December for primary and secondary. JC and MI differ at each end of the year.
How much annual leave am I entitled to? Seven days in the first year of service, rising by one day a year to fourteen, for employees covered by the Employment Act. Many employers offer more.
Can I cover the whole June break with leave? No, and it is not worth attempting. It runs 30 days. Take one week that matters and cover the rest with camps, family and downtime.