Half term didn't used to exist did it?

[EthicalNonMahogany]

I feel gaslit by the world! The number of people who are saying to me "oh, at school we always used to call the Easter, Christmas and summer break half term". No you didn't! You used to call it the Easter holidays. It was the holiday that happens at the end of term.

"Half term" used to happen three times a year and was the week off, half way through each term.

I know there have been threads on this before - I'm not disputing that many people now call all the holidays half term. It seems to be the thing now. (Stupid and inaccurate as it may be, but I shall endeavour to cope and life will go on )

My AIBU is this - people are saying it was always that way. AIBU to say no it bloody wasn't!!

Hm I do hear people get mixed up and forget whether the holidays are half term holidays or the end of term holidays .. I’ve probably got mixed up once or twice myself .. never the summer holiday though? I also always assume it’s a slip of the tongue rather than them meaning to call the holiday between terms “half term” which it obviously isn’t.

I do think something has changed though because I pretty much say Easter holidays / Christmas holidays / summer holidays and half terms .. whereas I’m sure growing up my Mum used to refer to whitsun and other things that I’ve forgotten.

I still call it Easter holidays no it was never half term when I went to school

I think half term isn't a thing in Scotland? My DP was teaching when we lived in Glasgow and never had a full week for half term, maybe one or two in-service days.

I’ve only just heard a few people say this in last few eeeks and confused the what it’s out of me….
I wonder if it’s because some schools have now moved their term dates around….there was talk of this in our school area when my dc were at school, and then Easter , becuase it is literally a moving feast, would not always be at the end of a term. It would then be a week half term instead. Could it be that ? For some parents it is literally a half term?
But otherwise, st stupid…a half term is just that…the mid term break. No idea why suddenly this year I’m hearing it all over the place.

@louderthan

I think half term isn't a thing in Scotland? My DP was teaching when we lived in Glasgow and never had a full week for half term, maybe one or two in-service days.

October is a week or fortnight depending on if you are a tattie area or not February is a couple of days or week depending on area. May is the long weekends.

I'm in Scotland and we get a week in February and call it half term. Where I grew up we only got the Friday and Monday so it was called feb long weekend. As we go back in august and the holidays are earlier in October (we get a week) than England I see the time before and after the October break as terms in their own right with a holiday in between same as pre and post Easter - not just one huge term with a half term in the middle

@hookiewookie29

I'm 53. Summer holidays, Easter holidays, Christmas holidays- all end of yerm. Half term is halfway through those terms- February half term is halfway through the spring term,October half term is halfway through the autumn term, Whit week in May is halfway through the summer term.

Same here, and I left school in 1972.

74 here, I only recall Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays with half terms, maybe not a full week, in each term. As a northern mill town we also had 'Wakes Week' which was a fortnight when the town shut down, each town had its own weeks, we had last in June, first in August, great for watching Wimbledon on TV! We would go back for two weeks in July then break up for the long Summer holiday, you can imagine how useful those two weeks were.

@liveforsummer

I'm in Scotland and we get a week in February and call it half term. Where I grew up we only got the Friday and Monday so it was called feb long weekend. As we go back in august and the holidays are earlier in October (we get a week) than England I see the time before and after the October break as terms in their own right with a holiday in between same as pre and post Easter - not just one huge term with a half term in the middle

It shows the differences in local areas.

I'm in Scotland too and we get 3 days in feb - one inset day and 2 days holiday. So we do still see it as a long weekend. Next area to me gets Thursday Friday Monday

@JudgeJ

74 here, I only recall Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays with half terms, maybe not a full week, in each term. As a northern mill town we also had 'Wakes Week' which was a fortnight when the town shut down, each town had its own weeks, we had last in June, first in August, great for watching Wimbledon on TV! We would go back for two weeks in July then break up for the long Summer holiday, you can imagine how useful those two weeks were.

Whoops, 'first in July' not August!

We called one Half term the Whit holidays. I can't remember half term being used in the 70's, or even later on.

Thank you OP! I feel the same and remember it the same way! Autumn term is sept to dec with half term being 'half' way through. The christmas holidays are the END of the term.

I work in schools now and it annoys me when colleges were calling these hols half term.

That is very much my perception - I know at my (private) prep school (8-12) we had three Sundays per term and worked on Saturday mornings. I think there may have been a short half term in the longest (summer ) term but in the shorter ones none. Overall the education was more extensive than today in my opinion - and I do wonder if this is for the benefit of the teachers rather than kids or parents