It's not bloody half term!

[Dotdashdottinghell]

Why / when did every school holiday become half term?

The half term holidays are February, Whitsun and October, not Easter, Christmas and thr summer.

People keep saying "Happy half term" or "Enjoy the half term" etc. Why is this an accepted thing?

[UtterlyOtterly]

I agree, it annoys me too.

[drawnfrommemory]

I don’t know, but it annoys me as well.

Although our primary school has 6 terms a year now which also confuses me (each half term is now a whole term apparently). Which makes the ubiquitous use of half term for all holidays make even less sense.

[lorn195]

It annoys me as well.

[MissyB1]

Yep it’s weird! It’s Easter holidays - although not for my ds, they don’t break up until Thursday.

[PenelopeClearwaterHalfblood]

Yes yes yes! It's even written in our work diary!

It's the blimmin EASTER HOLIDAYS!

Thank you.

[Youcannotbeseriousreally]

Who cares? All it means for many is an inconvenient time trying to look after kids and work. Call it what you like - it’s not a break either way!

[2chocolateoranges]

We are in Glasgow and never called any of the holidays half term, think it’s a regional thing. For us this is Easter holidays, then we have a few May long weekends, Summer holidays, September weekend, October break, then Christmas holidays, then February holiday etc.

never called them half term.

[hopsalong]

I HATE this. When did it start? I didn't notice it until my younger son was in reception a couple of years ago. Now ubiquitous.

[ImAlwaysknackered]

Does anyone really get annoyed by this? It’s so trivial.

[Elebag]

Yes, it's weird. It's either Xmas hols, easter hols or summer hols.

Half term holidays are Oct, Feb and May.

[romdowa]

Surely it's the end of term? Next term will be the summer term won't it?

[Fast800]

It REALLY annoys me. Even more so when I found myself accidentally saying it the other day.

[SIacker]

Haha didn't bother me until DS's school started calling it half term 🙄 I'd at least expect them to get it right!

[tigger1001]

@2chocolateoranges

We are in Glasgow and never called any of the holidays half term, think it’s a regional thing. For us this is Easter holidays, then we have a few May long weekends, Summer holidays, September weekend, October break, then Christmas holidays, then February holiday etc.

never called them half term.

Am in east coast of Scotland and same here - never referred to holidays as term at all. Easter holidays are coming up, summer holidays, October or tattie holidays and Christmas. Feb break and November weekend etc.

[Bluevelvetsofa]

I think people get annoyed because it’s an inaccuracy that becomes the norm, like so many other things.

Half term is, as the name implies, the midway point of the term. Easter is the end of term, as is Christmas and summer.

[Youdontevengohere]

It’s mildly annoying, but I don’t understand why people get so worked up about it. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things! There is one of these threads every school holiday.

[GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing]

Oh it annoys me too.

Its not half term every time the kids are off.

And don’t get me started on people (incl a particular teacher) describing a “half of term” as in the six weeks that are at school as a “half term”. Caused a lot of confusion about when projects were due!

[Schoolrunmumbun]

I've noticed this too. I think maybe it's because there's a feeling of wanting to get away for Christianity based labels for holidays with "Christmas" and "Easter". Where I live there are a lot of Muslim families and I noticed some schools says Winter break, Spring break. I kind of get that but calling everything half term is inaccurate, confusing and yes annoying.

[CharismaticMegafauna]

My daughter's school now refer to the Easter holidays as half-term in their newsletter. It annoys me as half-term is when you are halfway through a term!

[ThePotholeHelpline]

because when most of us were growing up there were 3 terms in the school year and each of these breaks marked half a term or end of term. It';s just beasier to say 'can't wait till half term', than 'cant wait till the easter school holidays'.

[idontlikealdi]

It's spring break at dds school now.

[ThePotholeHelpline]

now there are 6 terms. Every break marks the end of a term.

[Zanatdy]

Who cares? It’s just a term meaning kids are everywhere, so don’t plan anything for those weeks unless you’ve got young kids!

[DappledThings]

Annoys me too.

[madeinmanc]

It's definitely to avoid saying Easter which, and I say this as a non-Christian, is not a good thing.