When Melbourne schools hire

Updated 26 October 2026

The school year, upside down

The Victorian school year runs late January to mid December, four terms, with the long summer break over Christmas. If your mental calendar is Irish, flip it: the year starts a month after Christmas and the big hiring push happens in their spring, which is your autumn.

Term dates for 2027

These are the official government school dates published by the Victorian government; Catholic and independent schools run within a day or two of them. Source: vic.gov.au school term dates.

The two windows that matter

No official hiring season is published anywhere; what follows is what we see in the job ads, week in, week out.

• October to December, for January. The big one. Schools lock in staffing for the new school year before the summer break, and most ongoing roles are advertised and filled in this stretch. A teacher who is registered, VIT-sorted and interview-ready in October has the best run at a Term 1 start they'll ever get.
• May to June, for July. The second window, for mid-year starts at the beginning of Term 3. Smaller, but real, and often stronger for secondary, where resignations and leave create mid-year gaps.

Outside those windows, roles still appear, usually fixed-term contracts covering leave. They're a fine way in, and schools often convert a good fixed-term teacher to ongoing.

Where the jobs are advertised

• Government schools: every role goes on School Jobs Vic, the Department's recruitment site. The vacancies are public; anyone can look.
• Catholic schools: Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools runs its own job board covering roughly 300 schools, and regional dioceses run theirs.
• Independent schools and everything else: mostly Seek, plus school websites.

Watching all three, every week, across primary and secondary, is a part-time job in itself. That's the part we do for you.

Working backwards from a January 2027 start

• Now: start your VIT pre-assessment and register with us.
• October to November: interviews, over video at times that work in Ireland; we book them.
• December: offer signed, visa and flights your side, VIT application timed right.
• Mid January: land in Melbourne a fortnight before term so you're not jetlagged in front of a class.
• 27 January: Term 1.

Sources, checked 26 October 2026: Victorian school term dates · School Jobs Vic · Applying for teaching jobs in Victoria · MACS job search. Hiring-window observations are our own, from watching the boards.