Have people started to say ‘half term’ to refer to all school holidays?

[UpperLowerMiddleClass]

To me the school holidays coming up in a couple of weeks are the Easter holidays. The other long school holidays are the Christmas holidays and the summer holiday/break. Each of the three school terms have a break in the middle called ‘half term’.

But increasingly I’ve noticed people refer to any school holiday as ‘half term’, both on here and in life generally. I had a conversation recently where I completely misunderstood a school mum - she was talking about plans for the half term. I thought she was being very organised and talking about the May/June half term, but it turned out she was talking about (what I’d call) the Easter holidays.

Has anyone else noticed this? Has the terminology somehow changed without me noticing?

But it’s still incorrect even if some families have historically got the words muddled.

Oh I'm not denying that, it drives me up the wall!

Was just commenting on OPs suggestion that it was a recent thing.

Try being in Scotland. We have never had half-terms yet that wording is creeping in... 🤬

"That’s why you send your child private so that they can have proper words for terms and holidays . Shirt and long leaves, halves, Lent term etc."

What?

No, not here. Three terms and six half terms.

Yes I've noticed this too! Also the DCs' school refer to the terms as 1-6, not 1-3 main terms like it used to be. That would makes the holidays sixth term not half term though

It's suddenly become quite common, it's wrong and it's annoying.

I think it might be to do with people wanting to not say Christmas holidays and Easter holidays cos those names are from Christian tradition and not everyone celebrates those festivals. (I don't care about that but I think some people trying to be extra inclusive might be sensitive to it.) The solution is just say Winter/ Easter/ Summer break or holidays with half terms being the weeks off half way through each term.

Not this half terming everything abomination. Revolting.

Sorry I meant winter/ spring/ Summer of course

I work in a school and half terms are Oct, Feb and May and last a week. Christmas and Easter hols fall at the end of term and past 2 weeks. The Summer holidays are at the end of the academic year and are around 6 weeks.

I’m so glad people agree! I did feel like correcting the mum I was speaking too but thought it would come across way too pedantic.

Maybe I should start referring to the term names we had at university - Michaelmas, Lent etc. (I never did fully understand which term was when)

Yep, I said this to my husband a few weeks back, it’s very irritating.

Nope! There are three terms with 3 half term holidays in most English schools.

I’ve really not noticed this? How irritating.

Not something I can get worked up about.

Yes I’ve noticed this and it gets on my wick. It’s only half term if it’s the holiday half way through the term. Christmas, Easter and summer holidays are at the end of the term, therefore not half term!

Yes!! Drives me mad. It's called half term because it's half way through the term. Gah!
^^

Thank you OP!

Haven’t heard anyone doing this but it would drive me mad too, so thanks for the pre-emptive warning!

Agreed OP! So annoying. There are 3 terms, and therefore 3 half-terms. (Oct, Feb and May). End of term holidays are Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays. It's quite simple!

It is not a big deal. People say different things.

Really annoys me!!!! So glad I'm not the only one!!

If someone suggested meeting up the first Monday of half term
at dinner time I would turn up 29th May at noon ish.

Not understanding the difference between half term and the end of term is similar to not understanding the difference between degrees Celsius & Fahrenheit, or using one scale for hot temperatures & the other for cold. It’s a useful idiot signifier.

But language is for communicating! Surely we all need to agree what words mean, otherwise I can say cat when I mean dog, except I can’t because no one would understand my meaning.

It also annoys me that children here go up to year 11 and then go to SIXTH form.