Half term is attached to the spring bank holiday at the end of May, giving schools a week that runs from a Monday already off. The examination season starts in the same weeks: SATs for primary pupils, then GCSE and A-level papers from the middle of the month onwards, which makes May 2027 an unusually tense month in households with teenagers.
Two bank holidays come out of the 31 days of May 2027, which makes it one of the shortest working months of the year across the whole United Kingdom — and, unusually, one where all four nations agree on the count, since both holidays are observed everywhere.
May 2027 closes with half term finishing and the examination season at its height. June follows with the longest days of the year, the solstice on the 21st, and no bank holiday anywhere in the United Kingdom to break the month up.