Half term didn't used to exist did it?

Yes, it’s annoying and wrong. There are Christmas, Easter and summer holidays and half terms half way through the three terms. Is it something to do with the authorities claiming there are now six terms? Also some schools get a two week October half term so no wonder people are getting confused. I find it’s something said by young professionals who don’t have kids and don’t really know when the holidays are - or men who are utterly detached from the parenting in their own family.

I work in childcare and drives me mad that everyone under the age of 30 says we are on half term, no we're not it's the Easter holidays.

And don't get me started on vests that popper up under the nappy being called babygros.

In my 50s so school 70s just into 80s, but also worked many years in education. DC left school 2017. West mids.

Autumn term, spring term, summer term. Holidays are the end if those terms Christmas (2 weeks), Easter (2 weeks) and summer (6 weeks) with a week's half term holiday in the middle of each term .

I wonder if some people are now changing the title of the Christmas and Easter holidays to make them more inclusive considering many people don't celebrate these Christian festivals?

I had to book a meeting outside the Easter holiday. It had to be outside the Easter holiday because of childcare commitments. I booked it for last week, the Easter holiday is next weekend. Some people are pissed off as they're now having to pay for extra childcare, they meant the school Easter holidays (which makes no sense whatsoever as different areas have different dates). I'm not rearranging as they fucked up by not being clear. If they'd said "half term" instead of Easter Holidays, there wouldn't have been an issue and I would have double checked dates. I took it to mean the actual Easter holiday.

Bollocks.

No one has ever said Easter holidays and not meant the school holidays.

Nor has anyone ever referred to the Easter holidays and meant the period from Good Friday to Easter Monday.

You’ve made yourself look rather stupid.

I agree halt terms have always been there - may half term is indeed called whisun.

However I have in RL - but only were we are currently s wales - heard a few parents refer to Easter as half term - which was very confusing so much so I asked them wtf - and yes they claimed it was always so though others like me were bemused at the incorrect term.

I do wonder! I always remember it as a holiday after summer holidays….

YANBU, you are right about the correct names for holidays.

I have noticed Easter holidays being called "half term" a lot, including my by employer in the education sector! Probably in this case it is to do with D&I and thinking non Christians will get offended by holidays named after Xmas and Easter.

When I moved form Scotland to England I was so confused by all this mention of Whitsun breaks! Had no clue.

I’d say you are all wrong! Half term is the school term time between holidays, six half terms a year. The holidays are called October half term holiday, Christmas holiday, Feb half term holiday, Easter holiday, Whitsun half term holiday (now not actually Whitsun) and the summer holiday.

Just to be awkward.

Should read, I didn't rearrange. Getting my tenses confused and saying Easter approx 613 times.

We always called the May half term Whitsun

Our neighbour who taxis for schools kept saying he was doing something at half term, I wondered what he was on about and was thinking surely he means Easter as half term has gone

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?!

All school holidays are called half term, thought that was common knowledge!! Obviously it isn’t an actual half term but it’s quicker to say when being polite and enquiring if little Jonny is enjoying half term rather than his Easter holidays. It’s slang yo init

No, it's not slang at all . It's the perfectly non-slangy, correct phrase for some holidays and the incorrect word for other ones!

I don't buy the 'quicker to say', 'it's a couple of syllables shorter' reason either. It's just ignorance and a lack of having thought about why they're called 'half term'.

The kids at my school a few weeks ago asked me when half term was. They looked most alarmed when I said end of May !

It does seem to be a new thing - younger teachers do it too - 'oh, I can't wait til half term'. I wonder if people have just lost all track of time!

Only ever called the feb, May and October holiday’s half term. The end of term holidays are christmas holidays, Easter Holiday’s and summer Holiday’s.

Too many people are thick re comprehension and lazy text language.

Really grinds my gears when people call the Easter/Summer/Christmas holidays half term

I know and accept that it is of absolutely no consequence but it really annoys me

Half term is HALF way through the term

As a young child in the 70s I'm sure there was a September holiday, which disappeared. Did we have an earlier/shorter summer holiday?

Half term is half term because it divides two parts of the full term. If you want to get away from Christmas and Easter, then winter holidays and spring holidays would be in line with summer holidays. But they are not half term.

What is this ‘half term’ of which you speak? Next term is Trinity term, surely, and this is the Easter break. 😂👩‍🎓

YANBU, the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays have never been referred to as "half-term". By definition, "half-term" means halfway through the term!

During my primary school days, the half-term holidays used to be two days only, usually a Thursday and Friday.

I vaguely recall that when the Whitsun Bank Holiday changed to a fixed date of the last Monday in May, it made that half-term 3 days long and shortly after that, all three half-terms became a full 5 days. I was still at school at the time, so I'm guessing that this change occurred sometime in the early 1970s.