2025 brings a bumper crop of 10 long weekends – great news for those looking to maximise their annual leave and even better for travel enthusiasts eager to check off more destinations on their list.
However, long weekends aren’t just for adults, but also for children too. In fact, children actually enjoy more holidays (and long weekends) than adults. If you are a parent, consider planning your annual leave to coincide with these children-only long weekends (and avoid the crowded public holiday long weekends).
The 2025 public holiday long weekends are:
- New Year’s Day (1 Jan, Wednesday),
- Chinese New Year (29 and 30 Jan, Wednesday and Thursday),
- Hari Raya Puasa (31 March, Monday)
- Good Friday (18 Apr, Friday),
- Labour Day (1 May, Monday),
- Vesak Day (12 May, Monday),
- Hari Raya Haji (7 June, Saturday)
- National Day (9 August, Saturday)
- Deepavali (20 October, Monday),
- Christmas (25 Dec, Thursday)
Read Also: Public Holidays In 2025: How To Maximise Annual Leaves To Enjoy 10 Long Weekends
Children’s Long Weekends – Youth Day, Teachers’ Day, Children’s Day
Children in MOE schools enjoy scheduled school holidays on top of public holidays and term holidays.
Polling Day, is on 3 May 2025, Saturday and has been declared a public holiday. As such, the following Monday will be a school holiday and a designated day off-in-lieu for all staff in MOE Kindergartens as well as Junior Colleges.
Youth Day is on 6 July 2025, Sunday and the following Monday will be a scheduled school holiday.
Teachers’ Day is on 5 September 2023, Friday and heralds the start of the September school holidays. Depending on your child’s school, the celebrations for Teachers’ Day tend to be on the day before and some schools may implement a half day instead of a full day of school.
Children’s Day is only for primary school children (so don’t expect your older children to ditch school on this day). This will be on 3 October 2023, Friday.
Additionally, children also enjoy an extra school holiday on the Day After National Day, 11 August 2025, Monday. This could be a good opportunity to plan a short getaway if your child isn’t involved in the National Day Parade. However, do note that 8 August 2025, Friday, is still a school day.
Marking Days Are Another Period When Children Don’t Need To Report To School
Most schools will have designated days after examinations (especially the year-end exams) for teachers to mark the examination papers. This will vary from school to school.
However, all primary schools will have the same PSLE Marking Exercise when students don’t need to report to school. For 2025, this is designated as 13 October to 15 October, Monday to Wednesday.
Additionally, primary school children don’t have to report to school on PSLE Oral and Listening Comprehension examination days. This is to ensure that Primary 6 students have a conducive environment to take their PSLEs.
For 2025, PSLE Orals was designated on 13 and 14 August (Wednesday and Thursday) and Listening was on 16 September (Tuesday). This could potentially mean another 2 more long weekends for your children.
Read Also: Long Weekends In Malaysia: Dates You May Want To Avoid Traveling To Malaysia
Optimise Your Annual Leave To Take Advantage Of The School Holidays
Most parents already take their annual family vacation during the term school holidays.
Term School Holidays:
- Term 1: 15 March 2025 (Saturday) to 23 March 2025 (Sunday)
- Term 2: 31 May 2025 (Saturday) to 29 June 2025 (Sunday)
- Term 3: 5 September 2025 (Friday, Teachers’ Day) to 14 September 2025 (Sunday)
- Term 4: 22 November 2025 (Saturday) to 31 December 2025 (Wednesday)
Aside from term holidays, parents can plan their annual leave to spend at least 2 more long weekends with the kids. Parents of primary school children have even more options due to PSLE days.
Choosing to take your annual leave on these school holidays could potentially mean better flexibility and cheaper air tickets as most working adults would not be planning for these same long weekends as they are not public holidays.
Read Also: A Ferry Away: 6 Short Holiday Destinations Singaporeans Can Travel For The Weekend
