Maltese students return to school on 27 September.

According to data furnished by the European education network, the first European students to return to school are the Germans, who begin their new school term on 1 August.

Eight countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) start school on 1 September but students in Denmark, Sweden and Finland start school on 15 August.

Italian students return to school between 8 and 13 September but then they have less school holidays than their European counterparts, thus bringing the number of school days on a par with the rest of Europe.

Greece, Luxembourg and Austria allow their students a few more days’ holiday, at least to the first week of September. France has chosen an intermediate date: between 2 and 8 September.

During the first term, 14 countries give their students a full week’s holiday between October and November.

Christmas holidays last two weeks in almost all countries, except in Poland and Slovakia where they last just one week. Swedish students are luckier: they have three weeks.

It’s then one long hard slog up till the Easter holidays (from 23 to 30 March). But in 11 countries, including Germany, France and Holland, the lessons break off before this date because of Carnival (one week in these countries, but two in France).

The Easter holidays are practically the last break in all 25 EU member States before the summer holidays (except Germany, Luxembourg, Holland and Austria which have another week’s break between the end of April and the beginning of May).

Once again, Italian students are the first to go off on summer holiday, in the second week of June, compared to the others who break up at the end of June or the beginning of July.