Page 6 | It’s the EASTER HOLIDAYS not ‘half term’

PlumpAndDeliciousFatcat · 28/03/2021 11:47

You have entirely invented those definitions, @whetherpigshavewings.

viques · 28/03/2021 11:50

@RuthieW84

AIBU to be annoyed by people calling the Easter holidays ‘half term holidays? It’s the END of the term...! Half term holidays are October, Feb and May. Not a big deal I know but it niggles at me 🙄

I can cope with that one, smile and nod, it’s the people who call half term holidays “end of term” that force my smile into a rictus.

Applejackblackjackorfruitsalad · 28/03/2021 11:50

@Chilver

I find the whole 'half term concept daft anyway, particularly when the half term break is the same length as an end of term holiday!! Ridiculous system. Should have 4 terms, no half terms and 4 holiday breaks between terms, starting in Jan with none of this nonsense 3 terms with half term breaks AND end of term breaks.

Unless you're in a private school, half term holidays are 1 week, Easter and Christmas holidays are 2 weeks. Even in the private schools, if they don't follow this pattern, it's usually half term holiday of 2 weeks and Easter or Christmas holiday of 3 weeks.

SmellsLikeAHamsterCage · 28/03/2021 11:51

@Chilver

I find the whole 'half term concept daft anyway, particularly when the half term break is the same length as an end of term holiday!! Ridiculous system. Should have 4 terms, no half terms and 4 holiday breaks between terms, starting in Jan with none of this nonsense 3 terms with half term breaks AND end of term breaks.

The half term break is not the same length as an end of term holiday though, is it?

Half term holidays are only one week (October, Feb, May) and end of term holdiays are 2 weeks (Easter and Christmas) and 6 weeks (Summer).

At least that's how it works in the various areas I've lived in, in England. I know Scotland's school holidays are different though.

whetherpigshavewings · 28/03/2021 12:00

@PlumpAndDeliciousFatcat

You have entirely invented those definitions, *@whetherpigshavewings*.

Have I? So you go on a day trip on Saturday you tell your colleagues at work you had a "staycation" that weekend? Really?

People refer to "staycation" as holiday in the UK (or your own country). What on earth have I invented? Do tell me...

SachaStark · 28/03/2021 12:02

DH does this, and it irritates me so much. Even calls the summer holidays “half term”...

You live WITH a teacher, DH, it shouldn’t be so very hard!

PlumpAndDeliciousFatcat · 28/03/2021 12:30

No issue with your definition of 'staycation', @whetherpigshavewings; OED agrees with you that it means 'A holiday spent at home or in one’s country of residence.' The idea that 'holiday' by definition means crossing a border is a fiction, however.

Plumbear2 · 28/03/2021 12:50

@Chilver

I find the whole 'half term concept daft anyway, particularly when the half term break is the same length as an end of term holiday!! Ridiculous system. Should have 4 terms, no half terms and 4 holiday breaks between terms, starting in Jan with none of this nonsense 3 terms with half term breaks AND end of term breaks.

Except they are not the same length. Summer can be anywhere between 5-8 weeks. Christmas 2 weeks. Easter 2 weeks. The half terms 1 week. Not the same length at all

Ellpellwood · 28/03/2021 13:01

A holiday means going away. With the lockdown and restriction, it also makes so much more sense to know that "staycation" (ie restricted to the UK) are allowed, or HOLIDAYS (crossing the borders) are allowed.

So you would argue a family from Yorkshire who goes to Cornwall each summer has never had a holiday?

Namechangeforspring2021 · 28/03/2021 13:03

I thought staycation was a play on the word vacation and therefore an American saying. Where as in the UK we say holiday and that could mean in the uk or abroad.

PlumpAndDeliciousFatcat · 28/03/2021 13:08

@Namechangeforspring2021

I thought staycation was a play on the word vacation and therefore an American saying. Where as in the UK we say holiday and that could mean in the uk or abroad.

Yes, staycation is a portmanteau of stay + vacation. Vacation isn’t uniquely American though. Both the universities of Oxford and Cambridge refer to the breaks in between their terms as the ‘vacations’: Christmas, Easter, and the ‘long vacation’ in the summer.

yellowlorry123 · 28/03/2021 13:10

Everyone seems to refer to all school holidays as half term. Whether that be Xmas or Easter

luckylavender · 28/03/2021 13:10

Really annoys me & my children are grown up. Sloppy.

Namechangeforspring2021 · 28/03/2021 13:11

@PlumpAndDeliciousFatcat ahh I didn’t know that 😀

OldEvilOwl · 28/03/2021 13:13

I couldn't care less to be honest

GrainOfSalt · 28/03/2021 13:17

I agree with you 100% and it is a big deal! And yet I have said 'after half term' twice this week - and then corrected myself. I am a teacher and can only think it is because my internal calendar is completely broken. Usually I know exactly where we are in the school year including how many weeks in each half term/ how many weeks to go until Easter/ exams/ end of syllabus/ sessions left in a particular course etc. This year I find myself checking if it is a Monday or Thursday and a couple of weeks ago spent a whole day convinced it was February. Very much hoping a proper Easter holiday will act as a reset. Just broken.

woodhill · 28/03/2021 13:18

Yes it annoys me too. Half terms are the beaks in the middle of the terms

woodhill · 28/03/2021 13:19

I mean breaks 😀

NotSorry · 28/03/2021 14:01

@HedgeSparrows

And staycation means staying at home and going on day trips. Having a holiday in the UK is called 'going on holiday'. Otherwise you are assuming that the only place you can have a holiday is abroad. It's not the norm to go abroad - very normal to have a holiday on the UK.

Yes! This drives me mad - I shout at the radio when they say “staycation” meaning holidaying somewhere in the UK

I’ve not heard anyone use half-term for the Easter holidays (apart from a thread earlier today) but I have seen something where it referred to the Easter holiday as Spring break and I now can’t for the life of me remember where I saw it. It was definitely in this country though, and not America

Sidewalksue · 28/03/2021 14:10

I think staycation being used to describe U.K. holidays is just snobby. Lots of people only ever holiday in the U.K. and have never been abroad.
It’s just their holiday! 50 years ago almost everyone’s holiday would have been in the U.K.

TeddyBeans · 28/03/2021 14:13

Work in a school, I and everyone else there calls it half term. Half terms are half term, Christmas is half term, Easter is half term. Summer holiday is summer holiday. You get the gist of what's being talked about so what's the issue?

Crappyfridays7 · 28/03/2021 14:13

We don’t use half term at all
We have
Summer holidays
October holidays (were tattie picking holidays when I was at school)
Christmas holidays
February break and
Easter holidays

Never referred to any holiday as half term, Scottish so not sure if anyone else does I never have and have lived all over Scotland.

GintyMcGinty · 28/03/2021 14:14

Does it matter?

NotSorry · 28/03/2021 14:18

@Sidewalksue

I think staycation being used to describe U.K. holidays is just snobby. Lots of people only ever holiday in the U.K. and have never been abroad. It’s just their holiday! 50 years ago almost everyone’s holiday would have been in the U.K.

Yes, strange isn’t it. Nothing wrong with saying I’m going to the Lake District, or Devon or Wales etc. We love holidaying in this country!

Sidewalksue · 28/03/2021 14:20

It’s making it a 2 tier system and regarding U.K. holidays as ‘not a proper holiday’. It’s not like they are cheaper quite often as well.