Half term didn't used to exist did it?

EthicalNonMahogany · 2022-04-09T08:51:39+00:00

I feel gaslit by the world! The number of people who are saying to me "oh, at school we *always* used to call the Easter, Christmas and summer break half term". No you didn't! You used to call it the Easter holidays. It was the holiday that happens at the end of term. "Half term" used to happen three times a year and was the week off, half way through each term. I know there have been threads on this before - I'm not disputing that many people now call all the holidays half term. It seems to be the thing now. (Stupid and inaccurate as it may be, but I shall endeavour to cope and life will go on [grin]) My AIBU is this - people are saying it was always that way. AIBU to say no it bloody wasn't!!

JB1957 · 17/02/2025 13:53

SoManyTshirts · 09/04/2022 10:03

In my unreliable memory of the 60s and early 70s, half term was only 2 days (later extended with Baker days) and the other holidays were a bit longer.

That is very much my perception - I know at my (private) prep school (8-12) we had three Sundays per term and worked on Saturday mornings. I think there may have been a short half term in the longest (summer ) term but in the shorter ones none. Overall the education was more extensive than today in my opinion - and I do wonder if this is for the benefit of the teachers rather than kids or parents

waitingpatientlyforspring · 10/04/2022 15:07

Thank you OP! I feel the same and remember it the same way! Autumn term is sept to dec with half term being 'half' way through. The christmas holidays are the END of the term.

I work in schools now and it annoys me when colleges were calling these hols half term.

Ponoka7 · 10/04/2022 15:05

We called one Half term the Whit holidays. I can't remember half term being used in the 70's, or even later on.

JudgeJ · 10/04/2022 15:05

@JudgeJ

74 here, I only recall Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays with half terms, maybe not a full week, in each term. As a northern mill town we also had 'Wakes Week' which was a fortnight when the town shut down, each town had its own weeks, we had last in June, first in August, great for watching Wimbledon on TV! We would go back for two weeks in July then break up for the long Summer holiday, you can imagine how useful those two weeks were.

Whoops, 'first in July' not August!

tigger1001 · 10/04/2022 15:01

@liveforsummer

I'm in Scotland and we get a week in February and call it half term. Where I grew up we only got the Friday and Monday so it was called feb long weekend. As we go back in august and the holidays are earlier in October (we get a week) than England I see the time before and after the October break as terms in their own right with a holiday in between same as pre and post Easter - not just one huge term with a half term in the middle

It shows the differences in local areas.

I'm in Scotland too and we get 3 days in feb - one inset day and 2 days holiday. So we do still see it as a long weekend. Next area to me gets Thursday Friday Monday

JudgeJ · 10/04/2022 13:22

74 here, I only recall Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays with half terms, maybe not a full week, in each term. As a northern mill town we also had 'Wakes Week' which was a fortnight when the town shut down, each town had its own weeks, we had last in June, first in August, great for watching Wimbledon on TV! We would go back for two weeks in July then break up for the long Summer holiday, you can imagine how useful those two weeks were.

sueelleker · 10/04/2022 13:14

@hookiewookie29

I'm 53. Summer holidays, Easter holidays, Christmas holidays- all end of yerm. Half term is halfway through those terms- February half term is halfway through the spring term,October half term is halfway through the autumn term, Whit week in May is halfway through the summer term.

Same here, and I left school in 1972.

liveforsummer · 10/04/2022 12:31

I'm in Scotland and we get a week in February and call it half term. Where I grew up we only got the Friday and Monday so it was called feb long weekend. As we go back in august and the holidays are earlier in October (we get a week) than England I see the time before and after the October break as terms in their own right with a holiday in between same as pre and post Easter - not just one huge term with a half term in the middle

Dinoteeth · 10/04/2022 10:22

@louderthan

I think half term isn't a thing in Scotland? My DP was teaching when we lived in Glasgow and never had a full week for half term, maybe one or two in-service days.

October is a week or fortnight depending on if you are a tattie area or not February is a couple of days or week depending on area. May is the long weekends.

MayMorris · 10/04/2022 09:23

I’ve only just heard a few people say this in last few eeeks and confused the what it’s out of me….
I wonder if it’s because some schools have now moved their term dates around….there was talk of this in our school area when my dc were at school, and then Easter , becuase it is literally a moving feast, would not always be at the end of a term. It would then be a week half term instead. Could it be that ? For some parents it is literally a half term?
But otherwise, st stupid…a half term is just that…the mid term break. No idea why suddenly this year I’m hearing it all over the place.

louderthan · 10/04/2022 09:21

I think half term isn't a thing in Scotland? My DP was teaching when we lived in Glasgow and never had a full week for half term, maybe one or two in-service days.

sleepismyhobby · 10/04/2022 09:12

I still call it Easter holidays no it was never half term when I went to school

thewhatsit · 10/04/2022 09:02

Hm I do hear people get mixed up and forget whether the holidays are half term holidays or the end of term holidays .. I’ve probably got mixed up once or twice myself .. never the summer holiday though? I also always assume it’s a slip of the tongue rather than them meaning to call the holiday between terms “half term” which it obviously isn’t.

I do think something has changed though because I pretty much say Easter holidays / Christmas holidays / summer holidays and half terms .. whereas I’m sure growing up my Mum used to refer to whitsun and other things that I’ve forgotten.

ReadyToMoveIt · 10/04/2022 08:58

The reason it’s annoying is because it makes no sense. Half terms are called half terms because they fall half way through a term.
The Easter holidays don’t fall half way through a term… they are at the end of the spring term. Therefore calling it a half term makes so sense.

Original poster

EthicalNonMahogany · 10/04/2022 08:55

It's really nice to hear from everyone about the old seasonal holidays, potatoes and berries and the cadence of the year that was close to the land and to religious holidays and that we have now largely lost. I'm glad to have done this thread just for that!

And don't know why people getting it wrong feels so dumb and annoying. I wouldn't be annoyed with someone saying book bag instead of schoolbag and that too is something that's changed! I guess because it's not so illogical.

OP posts:

Newhousesad · 10/04/2022 03:49

I don’t think it’s a new thing. It was called that when I was at school and I’m 30

DyingForACuppa · 09/04/2022 19:01

Easter, Christmas and Summer are not half term breaks.
They are the main holidays which separate the three terms.
Half terms are breaks, usually a week long, which occur mid term.

I completely agree with this - but as a child in the 80s/90s I often confused the Easter break with a half term, as it's didn't have its own holiday identity - the summer was the long break when we went to the beach and at some point went away for a holiday. Christmas/New year was full of seasonal things. But the so called 'Easter' break didn't always contain Easter, and we never anything Easter-y other than a few hours on Easter Sunday, so every other day of the holiday just felt like a half term break.

I don't really get the anger against people saying the wrong name? But then I also sometimes say 'nursery' instead of 'pre-school' and 'book bag' for 'reading folder' etc, unless you are actually a teacher who cares that much about using precise school terminology?

MargaretThursday · 09/04/2022 16:29

It's only the last couple of years I've heard the Easter holidays referred to as "half term".
What does that make the genuine half term breaks? Quarter terms?

I think it may have corresponded with some councils fixing the Easter holidays. It always used to be the 2 weeks either side of Easter, but now when it's late we have 2 weeks before, and early, we have 2 weeks after. That kind of makes sense though.

But people who call it half term, still refer to "spring term" and "summer term" so calling it "half term" does not make sense.

weebarra · 09/04/2022 15:47

In Scotland - no half term. Easter Holiday, Summer holiday and October week (or sometimes the Tattie Holidays).

liveforsummer · 09/04/2022 15:21

@BoredZelda

We had the the Tattie Holidays as well. I'm old enough and grew up rurally enough that some of my pals actually spent that holiday howking up tatties, poor wee souls came back to school for a rest.

I was tattie picking from the age of 10 til I was 14. I loved it, it was great money for a kid. Bought my first ZX spectrum with tattie picking money. Also paid for my first year school trip. £12 quid a day (equivalent to about £30 now) was a decent wage, similar to the cleaning job at a posh hotel I went on to do next.

I remember being super jealous when my older siblings were going off tattie picking for the day and coming back with their earnings. By the time I was old enough they mostly used machines.

CakeRabbit · 09/04/2022 15:18

Only people with no brain refer to Christmas and Easter as “half term”.

There’s a big gap between their ears.

Icelandicsox · 09/04/2022 15:02

BoredZelda, seriously? I had no idea it was paid and enjoyable. My parents kept me in line with the threat of tattie picking like it was the Galleys - "Be good or its the tatties". If I complained about any mad job they got me to do it was always "At least your not at the tatties"
I'm raging, years of.being well behaved and hard working for no reason at all

BusinessMindThoughts · 09/04/2022 14:13

@HunterHearstHelmsley

I just use it as short hand. Not the summer holidays obviously.

The Easter holidays here started yesterday. For most people I work with, it stated last week. It's easier to say "half term" to specify I mean when the kids are off, rather than to say "Easter holiday", then I might mean the Good Friday - Easter Monday period.

But saying "half term" is specifying when the kids are off at another point in the year.

It's not "short hand" when it quite literally and by definition means a different time period - you're also misusing the term "short hand"!

VeryLongBeeeeep · 09/04/2022 14:05

@Herani

My mum used to call one of the half terms (think it was after the summer hols) ‘blackberry week’. Anyone else heard that term, or did she invent that all by herself?!

October half-term. So called because (in the north, at least) that's when blackberries were ripe enough to pick.

BoredZelda · 09/04/2022 14:00

We had the the Tattie Holidays as well. I'm old enough and grew up rurally enough that some of my pals actually spent that holiday howking up tatties, poor wee souls came back to school for a rest.

I was tattie picking from the age of 10 til I was 14. I loved it, it was great money for a kid. Bought my first ZX spectrum with tattie picking money. Also paid for my first year school trip. £12 quid a day (equivalent to about £30 now) was a decent wage, similar to the cleaning job at a posh hotel I went on to do next.