Editorial Methodology & Verification
How we source, audit, and verify every UK school term date, statutory bank holiday, and examination timetable.
1. Primary Source Provenance
Unlike automated scraper sites that regurgitate unverified tables, every date published on UK Calendar is audited directly against official primary sources:
- Bank Holidays: Ingested directly from the official GOV.UK API under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- School Term Dates: Sourced directly from local authority education portals, committee minutes, and official council PDF schedules across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
- Examination Timetables: Verified against the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and individual examination board publications (AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, WJEC/Eduqas).
2. The 6-Point Substance Standard
In strict compliance with our quality governance, an indexable council page is never published as an empty stub. Every council entry must satisfy:
3. Academies & Free Schools Caveat
Under UK education law, academies, free schools, voluntary-aided schools, and independent schools have statutory autonomy to set their own school term dates and INSET training days.
4. Audit Frequency & Error Correction
Local councils periodically adjust term dates or finalize provisional dates for future years. Our editorial team runs scheduled audits across UK local authorities. Any reported date discrepancies submitted by parents or council officers are investigated and updated within 24 hours.