To think it's not half term?

[WildBelle]

For a few years I've noticed that a lot of people refer to any school holiday as half term (except the summer holiday which is pretty much always called the summer holiday).

Now, when I was at school (ok it was a while ago), half terms were the week you would get off half way through the term, e.g. in October, February and May. The longer holidays were the Christmas and Easter holidays, NOT half term.

But now they all seem to he know as 'half term'. I've noticed it a lot on here as well as real life. I am probably massively unreasonable to get annoyed by it but every time I hear it it makes me twitch. How can it be half term at the end of a term?

I agree, weird to call it half-term at the end of term.

But as Dragonglass and Serial have already said, these days each half term is really a term. So term 1 goes up to Oct, term 2 up to Christmas and so on.

Even more confusing though, when schools mix and match. So term 1 on the official calendar, but then talk of 'half-term' on letters home etc. I really hate the move to 6 terms. There was nothing wrong with the traditional 3!

me too - driving me irrationally insane ... also as easily confused individual, makes me keep forgetting where we are in the school year!

Wild if it were "a PC thing" wouldn't they just be referred to as the spring holiday and the winter holiday. Tbh that would be far more logical and consistent to fit in with the long holiday being the summer holiday...

I live abroad where i teach English as a foreign language and have to explain what "half term" means every time anyone asks what the Faschingsferien and Pfingstferien are called in English / British English... I've never heard February half term called anything but February half term (it's the Carnival/ Mardis gras holiday here) and nobody says Whit Week for the May/ June half term any more...

Maroon Pencil - someone in Essex said this to me last week. I assumed she was just muddled because she doesn't have school aged DC's.

How can this be a thing? There was a perfectly decent and obvious way of describing the different holidays. But no, lets just call them all half term and confuse the fuck out of everyone.

Why don't we just call every break from school the Easter Holidays? even the breaks on Saturdays and Sundays? That sounds like a sensible idea in the same spirit...

Of course it's not bloody half term! -drives me mad-

Never heard this. How odd.

What I hate is that officially there are now 6 terms in the year, but most people (me included) still think of there being 3. So when you talk about "next term" "once a term" etc you have to clarify whether you are talking about "short terms" or "long terms". Grrrr.

I guess there are officially no half term holidays any more on that basis. Or they all are.

I've noticed it a lot on here as well as real life. I am probably massively unreasonable to get annoyed by it but every time I hear it, it makes me twitch
I find it annoying too.

Half-term holidays are in October, February and May.

The other holidays are Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays.

YANBU! It annoys me too.

YANBU. I also get annoyed with 'bank holiday' which used to refer to a holiday for banks I think (correct me if I'm wrong) but is now a national holiday and I refer it to 'national holiday'.

Maybe not everyone is as keyed in on the school calender as some feel they should be

Either way, its a minor thing. I find it more irksome that people celebrate Easter and Christmas and are not religious

YANBU. Teacher here. It is true that schools now generally regard it as a year broken into six terms, rather than three terms with a half-term break in the middle. However, that should in theory mean that NONE of the holidays are called half-term. In practice almost everyone still calls the Oct/Feb/May ones half term. Easter is definitely not, and never was, half-term.

YANBU. Annoys me too!
Half term is the one week off half way through the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms.

I'm really surprised to see two teachers saying they call all the holidays half term! I'm a teacher and I can't imagine why anyone, least of all a teacher, could confuse them.
YANBU at all. It's nuts and irritating.

Having read the other posts, I can see how even teachers would get confused if their school has 6 terms. I've never heard of this before.
It must make it difficult as some terms would only have 3 weeks.

Oh god, is this a thing now?! I've heard the same person do this three times recently and thought she was just confused - she also says 'pacifically' instead of 'specifically' so thought it was something like that.

YANBU. If lots of people start doing this I'm going to look like a right pedantic shrew correcting them all. Which I will have to.

Worked in schools all my life and never heard Easter and Christmas holidays called half term !
Would confuse the hell out of me.

YANBU!
Except that where there used to be 3 terms there are now 6 according to my local primary school... Autumn term is term 1 and 2, Spring term is term 3 and 4 and Summer term is term 5 and 6... maybe they plan to introduce "half term" holidays midway through each of the 6 terms as well now???

I consider it end of term as that's what DC's school refer to it as.

Yes! I've seen this loads about the Easter holiday and it's really bugging me.

YANBU It really annoys me. The school year has 3 terms and thus 3 halt term holidays.

In England the autumn term runs Sept - Dec with Half Term being a week in October. The Christmas Holidays are at the end of the Autumn term.

The next Term (called either Winter Term or Spring Term depending on the school) runs from Jan - March/April with Half Term being a week in February. The Easter Holidays (or Spring Break) ends that Term.

Summer Term runs from April - July with the Half Term being around the end of May/Beginning of June. You then have summer holidays before you start all over again.

I understand that not everyone knows the calender but surely it's common sense that not ALL holidays are half terms? I always assumed summer holidays, easter holidays, summer holidays would be the default term for the holidays at those times but apparently not.

*one of those should have been Christmas holidays clearly. Apparently I can't get my brain to work either.

YANBU, people are just stupid.
It pisses me off and my kids don't go to school weird home educators so probably don't hear it as much as you. thankfully

I work in school. There are three terms - autumn (Sept to Dec), spring (Jan to Easter) and summer (after Easter to July). each term has a half term holiday roughly in the middle of it. For planning purposes in school we refer the terms as Autumn 1, half term break, Autumn 2, Christmas holiday, Spring 1, half term break, Spring 2, Easter holiday, Summer 1, half term break, Summer 2, End of school year, Summer holiday. I've never heard the Easter holiday called half term to be honest but I guess those without children may get confused.

I know what Whitsun is, but as the May half term holiday always has the late May bank holiday in it (ie a relatively fixed date) and Whitsun is the 7th Sunday after Easter, then its date will be different each year.

Whit Sunday is 4th June this year (so right at the end of half term) whereas last year it was 15th May so rather before half term.

I may be being over pedantic though