Is Mumsnet an English forum?

You mean British

There are some things it simply doesn’t occur to people would be different elsewhere.

I recently met a lovely American family on their first trip outside the US who arrived and found they couldn’t plug in any of their electrical devices, because they didn’t realise that plug sockets are different in other countries. They’d only ever known American plugs - and the possibility that other countries might have different plugs had never even registered with them.

I don’t consider that to be ‘ignorant’ or failing to take an interest in the wider world - there are some things that seem so standard that you just don’t question it.

Yes, that is true and ironic that the posters getting worked up about people not knowing that Scottish school holidays are different to England aren't aware of the fact that that there is variation in term dates in England.

Wales has the same holidays as England.

Even in England school holidays aren't universal, my nephews and nieces in different parts of England are off at different times, those in private versus state often have longer breaks it seems, and then there are college and University terms to consider.

As pp said, if you spend your life getting your 'groats curdled' 😂 about what other people don't know you're in for a hard time.

I am sure there are plenty of things you don't know about those countries though. I know when some countries have school holidays as it can effect holiday pricing e.g. expensive in France in August. I know holidays are earlier in the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries for the same reason.but when holidays are in Scotland has no impact. Why should people be particularly interested in school term dates of different countries.

Since the overwheming majority of posters are in England, why is it such a surprise to you that most of them will assume that other posters are also in England unless they say otherwise? Scotland makes up only around 8% of the UK population.

You are making the incorrect assumption that posters in England are English.

People in England aren't 'forgetting' that other posters can be anywhere else in the world, but come on. If it is relevant to your post (schooling, law, healthcare etc) then just say where you are. It's not rocket science.

There are many posters from Australia, New Zealand, expats and English-speaking people from all over the world who use Mumsnet. I reckon they tend to assume that most posters on here are in England as well.

No, the point is that a huge percentage of people are not even considering that there are other systems outside their own personal knowledge. Because they are not curious about the world around them.

And then they come on threads on the first week of July saying of COURSE the schools are still in for another 3 weeks at least, and nobody "in Britain" has broken up for holidays.

I was just reading that again.

You said that your A level teens have very little knowledge of Wales and Scotland. I wonder why. Is it because they see England as better? So its not worth knowing about other countries?

Im sure teens in wales know a lot about England

Of course not, you could Google.

My point is the vast majority of posters don't need to know.

There are also loads of Irish posters on here.

I know that Republic of Ireland have three months summer holidays for teenagers, compared to six weeks in England.

Eh?

You dont need to go to Scotland to know that they have different school holidays.

Every country has different school rules to each other.

I only know the Scottish holidays differ, as I've holidayed there and child focused stuff like trampoline parks are deserted at the end of August, plus I've got friends with kids in the Scottish school system. It's only "common knowledge" if you go there, really. I imagine still fewer people have any need to know there's a different legal system.

I teach my A-level Economics students (in London) about the differences in the income tax system every year and very rarely are they aware there's a Scottish Parliament. Knowledge of Wales is even rarer. And I'm not confident many of them know much about NI either (despite the basics of the four nations being on the English Geography National Curriculum for Y7 I think?)

I'm in my 50s and I think it was more common to holiday in Wales and Scotland when I was a child. People go abroad now.

It's not because they assume everyone is English though. They just don't know school summer holidays are earlier in Scotland than England. Why would they?

because they take notice of the world around them? I mean, I know that most of Paris shuts down for August even though I'm not French. I know that at high school graduations in the US they wear mortarboards even though I'm not American. I know the cut off for school entry in N Ireland is July even though I'm not N Irish.

I know Scottish school holidays are different from England but I'm not sure about Wales and NI? Can anyone let me know for future reference,

As for mom/mum I originate in the Midlands and it is a thing there, I also call them islands and not roundabouts? Is this a Midland thing too?

It's not because they assume everyone is English though. They just don't know school summer holidays are earlier in Scotland than England. Why would they?

I guess we could have flags next to our user names to aid better communication but if people don't know school holidays are different in Scotland that's not going to help. They come to this forum and leave better informed, you'd hope.

But I do worry for you getting annoyed at it. You are going to live in a perpetual state of outrage if you ae triggered by other people's ignorance.

It is British, with a predominance of English posters because England has the largest population out of the 4 home nations.

I am Scottish. It does wind me up when you go on a thread where people are expressing disbelief that children are out of school on holiday first week of July when ours break up last week in June, or recommending someone go to Ofsted about their childminder in Glasgow, or mentioning a whole host of other things which only apply in England.

And it's even MORE annoying when the same posters just refuse to accept that they are wrong because they have no concept that people in Armagh/Aberdeen/Aberystwyth do things differently to people in Altrincham/Andover.

I assume British but not English no.

Well it's a London based company so it an English website if you're going to get all funny about it. So it's not surprising it's got an English bias.

If it was based is Edinburgh you'd be evangelising about the fact that it's Scottish not British.

Stop being so petty.

Most posters are from England. Most people in the UK are from England.Anyone can post however, even men!

And the Midlands.

They also say mom in some parts of Ireland

Haven't rtft so sorry if I'm repeating others, but around 84% of the UK population live in England and this is a UK site, so not an unreasonable assumption where a poster doesn't say which education system or whatever they mean?

It's based in England and most of the posters are presumably, UK based.

Of course not all.