Half term didn't used to exist did it?

We always used to finish after lunch for the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays, and not necessarily on a Friday. Half-term holidays were a week off after a normal Friday finish.

It doesn't help that people say "half term" and mean two different things.

"This half term we'll be working on fractions."

"After half term we'll move onto telling the time."

The second should really be "half-term holidays", but it gets shortened.

It's definitely always been the big summer holidays, Christmas holidays, and Easter holidays.

The only reason I can think of for the change is a lot of schools now call the terms Spring 1, Spring 2, Summer 1, Summer 2 etc. But that doesn't make sense either as there are now 6 terms in a school year. Not 3 terms with a week off half way through.

I'm in the north east of Scotland, we don't have half terms, maybe a couple of extra days in February but that's it. We do have two weeks at Easter, 6/7 in the summer and 2 weeks in October (tattie holidays as they used to pick potatoes during this break).

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.

Half terms were part of the academic year when I went to school, from the mid 70s, as were the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays. Summer holidays were often a bit longer before they started inset days, reducing teacher holiday allocation by 5 days and allowing schools to have these days spread throughout the year instead.

@CaptainMyCaptain now you come to mention it, I do remember freezing to death in the playground for an hour after lunch!

In Scotland having lived in two different areas. Half term wasn’t a thing. It was the feb break, easter break, summer holidays, September weekend and the October holidays. In Glasgow October holidays are 1 week. In Dundee are surrounding they are 2 weeks and called the tattie holidays.

Christmas
Feb half term
Easter
May half term
Summer hols
October half term.

No, he doesn't. Old Nick pisses on them at Michaelmas, because it's the Anniversary of the Archangel Michael kicking him out of Heaven, where he landed on his arse in a big clump of Brambles.

Old Michaelmas is 11th October, from when they changed the calendar.

I know autoincorrect is out to sabotage and change every other word, I must proofread more carefully before pressing post...

What? That is stupid! Half term happens half way through a term, then the Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays happen at the end of term.

This has been the case going back certainly to the early 80s and it wasn't new or modern then.

The Easter holidays aren't half term because they aren't halfway through a term.

Half term is normally a week long, the other holidays are normally longer.

I heard "Easter half term" for the first time a few days ago and was confused, couldn't tell if they meant Feb half term, May/June half term, or Easter holidays. I didn't realise it was a thing.

Half terms are the (usually) shorter holidays between the longer main ones that are fixed around Christmas, Easter and the summer.

It's only in the last couple of years that I've begun hearing people use Half Term to mistakenly describe any school holiday, and it is confusing. If you asked me this week about my Half Term plans, I'd start talking about Whitsun camps and the Jubilee. One person I've heard using it works in a school and the school uses the usual terminology, she's just being wrong.

Admittedly there is a school in our area that distributes its holidays more evenly across 5 terms and there is actually an Easter Half Term of one week. Otherwise living around the edge of 3 counties with differing holidays Half Term would still indicate holiday time in February, May and October.

Annoyingly it's one of those things like "myself" that seems to spread and become a normal and slightly bewildering usage to those who can remember the proper terminology.

Agree with OP and everyone else. It's so thick.

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.

Is this thread making any one else think of that Kevin Bridges skit about Chad Hogan and Spring Break?

When I was in Scotland they seemed to ignore Easter as a holiday all together, I think they add the 2 weeks on to the summer holiday?

I'm sure we get a set 2 weeks at Easter and depending where Easter falls it would be within the 2 weeks or may be just after e.g. this year my ds has just finished week 1 of the Easter break and then he has another week plus Easter Monday off and then returns to school on Tuesday 19th April

You're absolutely right OP. I'm a teacher and my friend recently me if I was 'on half term' which I was a bit confused by. It's not half term because the term has finished.

And with us, everyone knows (except my former manager, who is surprised every year,) that the start and end dates can vary for different counties, which is relevant when there at least 3 counties in play for your team.

Same here. The request of “avoid Easter holidays” always leads someone to ask “which weeks are those”

When I was in Scotland they seemed to ignore Easter as a holiday all together, I think they add the 2 weeks on to the summer holiday?

I don’t know any parts of Scotland where there were no holidays around Easter. We’ve had years where the Easter holidays didn’t incorporate Easter weekend because Easter was too late or too early, but the holiday was still there. Otherwise the kids would be at school from February half term til the end of June.

Is the summer holidays called summer half term then 😂

Never ever heard this in my life, are those people a bit dim?

I'm in Scotland and I don't think it's ever been called half term, certainly not in my circle growing up or with my DC either.

Summer holidays, then the "tattie" holidays in October. Christmas then Easter and other holidays generally weren't full weeks so were just school holidays. So we'd get a few days off in Feb, bank holidays in May and school finished at the end of June for the Summer.

Some people are just thick

I’m a teacher and I have noticed lots of people calling the current Easter holidays ‘half term’ where I live, not sure if it’s a regional thing (I’m in the North West) or a generational thing but when I grew up in Wales and when I taught in the South of England a decade ago I don’t remember anybody calling the Easter holidays half term.

As some others have said it does bother me to hear people calling the current holiday ‘half term.’ As a teacher half terms are the holidays in October, February and May/ June which happen mid-way through each school term, it doesn’t make sense to call Easter half term when it marks the end of a full-term and beginning of a new school term, however I suppose for adults who have no experience of school since leaving it themselves maybe this isn’t as obvious.

I started school in 1979 (baker days were not until the 80s) and the main difference is that we had a whitsun holiday at what is now the May half term as it was 2 weeks as well and not one, then a shorter summer holiday. Though I think it was just the primaries that had the 2 weeks. Not sure when it became a one week half term. But Easter is definitely an end of a full term holiday and not a half-term.