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Original poster

To get irritated by people who call every school holiday Half Term?

297 replies

sorrynotathome · 18/03/2026 08:37

How can you not know that the half term holiday is in the middle of the term? After the first half and before the second half. At the end of term is the Easter, Summer or Christmas holidays. Do some people think Half Term is an English word for schools being closed? Now I’ve typed term so much it’s started to look weird.

OP posts:
Reliablesource · 18/03/2026 19:10

It’s very irritating. Along with people who call Inset days ‘INSECT days’. Wtf do they think the staff are doing? Looking for ladybirds in the playground?

Bemused89 · 18/03/2026 19:06

As a teacher. No. It doesn't bother me and I hear this all the time. Frankly I have bigger things to worry about.

emziecy · 18/03/2026 19:01

Emlizcor · 18/03/2026 18:22

I’ve found my people 😊 always thought it was just me that got irrationally mad at this

Same! As a parent and a teacher it really irritates me, which I know is irrational and I irritate myself by being irrationally irritated by it 🤣

emziecy · 18/03/2026 18:55

cobrakaieaglefang · 18/03/2026 09:57

Reflection on the parents education..can't work out half and whole terms..why have I just thought of the jaffa cakes advert! 🙈😂

Full moon, 'alf moon, total eclipse? 🤣

HyggeTygge · 18/03/2026 18:55

The change in terminology seemed to start just before "staycation" started replacing British holidays.

I will fight to the death on that, @UrgentScurryfunge ! Assume you agree that it means staying at home and doing day trips!? Not going on holiday anywhere in your entire home country!?

HeidiWhole · 18/03/2026 18:43

So glad it’s not just me who finds this infuriating!

Half-term holidays are the ones half way through each of the three terms. It’s not hard. The new six term thing muddies the waters a bit (and is also annoying).

Aii · 18/03/2026 18:39

I’m guilty of this, think I even used to do it as a kid, summer hols and then everything else being half term

HyggeTygge · 18/03/2026 18:37

Yadday · 18/03/2026 18:26

I am guilty of calling everything a half term... More because it has less syllables and is easier to roll off the tongue with a snappy "half-term" than "the-Ea-ster-hol-i-days", with it's 6 syllables...

Why not call it a "break" then? Even fewer syllables!

Yadday · 18/03/2026 18:36

MannoseHelp · 18/03/2026 18:32

But you are saying the wrong thing completely. And potentially confusing people with your error. Does that not bother you?

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Well, I don't do it intentionally.... I just think my brain goes to harm term automatically, like more of a Freudian slip.

JackJarvisEsq · 18/03/2026 18:33

I get the rage when people call local holidays a Bank Holiday and then get annoyed when it is actually a processing day and scheduled payments have left their account

MannoseHelp · 18/03/2026 18:32

Yadday · 18/03/2026 18:26

I am guilty of calling everything a half term... More because it has less syllables and is easier to roll off the tongue with a snappy "half-term" than "the-Ea-ster-hol-i-days", with it's 6 syllables...

But you are saying the wrong thing completely. And potentially confusing people with your error. Does that not bother you?

Theunamedcat · 18/03/2026 18:28

One of my children's primary school began referring to Easter as half term and it just spread i almost missed Easter this year because the locals were talking about half term and next term etc I asked if I had missed Easter and got a bunch of confused looks turns out that was the half term they were talking about

KitKatKrums · 18/03/2026 18:27

OMG this annoys me too. DH does it! It causes real-life problems. Like when he tells me he’s booked half term off work so if I book it too we can go away. So I book it - only to find he meant Easter Break! Angry

Yadday · 18/03/2026 18:26

I am guilty of calling everything a half term... More because it has less syllables and is easier to roll off the tongue with a snappy "half-term" than "the-Ea-ster-hol-i-days", with it's 6 syllables...

maudelovesharold · 18/03/2026 18:25

Pinkywoo · 18/03/2026 12:39

But it's not short hand, the other holidays ARE half terms!

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But they’re not, if the school has 6 terms!

cobrakaieaglefang · 18/03/2026 18:24

I worry about their basic maths skills...2 halves make a whole. 6 halves make 3. 3 what if there are no full terms only 'half ' terms?

Emlizcor · 18/03/2026 18:22

I’ve found my people 😊 always thought it was just me that got irrationally mad at this

LassiKopiano24 · 18/03/2026 18:21

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

FalseSpring · 18/03/2026 18:19

Christmas, Easter and the summer holidays are definitely not half terms! It really annoys me when people refer to them as half term. I just assume that these people are complete idiots.

Donttellhim · 18/03/2026 18:15

Half term is called half term, because most of the holidays, or a good portion of them were half term. There were less terms per year, and we had half term holidays. Technically now, there are no half term holidays, you just have more shorter terms.

LieInsAreExtinct · 18/03/2026 17:54

Yes I think it makes people sound really thick, like they don't consider the meanings of the words coming out of their mouths...it used to cause me real confusion with organising staff leave. I think it's quite a recent thing; nobody used to say this when I was younger! Even my dd (26) said it the other day when referring to Easter holidays, and both she and her partner work in schools! I just don't get it.
Some posters are referring to people without children but I am talking about people with children asking when's half-term when they mean when's the next school holiday?

UrgentScurryfunge · 18/03/2026 17:54

I've answered a person wrongly around this time of year because she asked me about half term, so I told her about my plans for Whitsun. She then looked a bit confused (and I thought she was a bit ahead of herself, but she's an organised type) and I realised from her confusion that she meant the next holiday which can be summarised by the neat word "Easter".
She even worked at that school 🤦‍♀️

My DCs have a different term structure to me, so they're about to have a shorter "half term" whereas I'll have the traditional 2-week Easter. It's just called Easter in our house although "half-term" is technically correct at their school, but it's somewhat of an anomally locally.

The change in terminology seemed to start just before "staycation" started replacing British holidays.

CheeseWisely · 18/03/2026 17:51

It’s irritated me since long before I had DC because I work in travel.

’We want to go away in half-term’

’Ok, February, May or October?’

’August’ Angry

Echobelly · 18/03/2026 17:51

Yes, my husband does this and also has no idea when any of the holidays are despite them not having really changed since we were kids.

Easterchicken · 18/03/2026 17:50

But is everything not a half of a whole???