It's not bloody half term!

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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?

@ThePotholeHelpline can you tell us which counties have 6 terms?

Even so, are you not aware that (I think) all other counties in England and Wales have three terms?

Kent has unfortunately moved to calling them 6 terms. Which is stupid and annoying in itself.

But it makes calling any holidays half term make even less sense. The only time we are technically at half term would be a weekend 6 times a year around the end of September, middle of November etc.

I refuse to get on board with the new system.if calling them 6 terms whatever the school are forced to claim.

East Sussex, Kent, Essex

I don’t know where in the UK you are but I’d suggest you’re the exception rather than the norm. Also the dates you’ve given are more or less the same as most schools, where they’d be described as three terms with a week’s half term holiday within each, rather than six terms.

Ok, the vast majority of schools in the UK have 3 terms.
If your school has 6 terms, it makes no sense at all to call any of the holidays ‘half term’, as a 6 term school wouldn’t have any half terms.

I find it staggering people do this nowadays. How can it be half term when it’s the end of term this week? Makes zero sense to me. Unless it genuinely is halfway through a two semester year.

For no reason at all, I associate it with the recent change of calling all pushchairs prams.

I agree. Much as it pains me Kent really does claim there are 6 terms.

But yes, that means there are no half-terms, not twice as many.

@ThePotholeHelpline I am in Essex and all the schools around me have 3 terms.

Ugh my comment about semesters made no sense at all, sorry. I have no idea where I was going with that at all. Stand by the rest of it though!

Of course it is not half term!

Easter break is the end of the Spring Term. Christmas break is the end of Autumn Term. Summer holidays mark the end of the Summer Term and the School Year.

My DCs go to two different schools with different term structures.

One goes to a school with typical term dates. Three terms split by 3 one-week half terms. The upcoming holiday is Easter.

The other is about to have a one-week half term having already had a fortnight at October, Christmas and Feb. May has to be a single week because of exam season, and in order to keep the summer longer than a month, it costs a week off Easter. It's described as 5 terms through the year. This term so far has been less than 4 weeks out of an 11 week term.

While for us it is factually both Easter and half-term, I stick with "Easter" for both to reduce confusion.

I once had a parent ask me what we were doing at half-term (standard term dates) so I told her about our plans for Whitsun. She meant Easter. She even worked in that school so should have known better🙄

It's inflation: I blame the government!

Saw this and thought of this thread. It is about activities over Easter.

My dad is adamant time off work is holiday not annual leave, he says leave is for the military. He gets really mad about it😂

Why does this bother you so much. I want your life please!

@Flashinggreen o agree with your dad. I take a day’s holiday from work. It’s just a phrase people!!!

Actually I’ve been told it’s Not Easter holiday anymore it’s Spring Break ..which may or may not include Easter ..pretty dismal when family live in another country

My husband calls it “half term”, realises he’s wrong, then corrects himself to “full term” 😳😂🥴🙈 Which is not even a thing 😂

June McJuneface 😂

Although I agree with you to an extent, regardless of the UK being majority Christian religions, the UK is far more diverse now than it used to be, so realistically it should be called half term now to include all religions.

But every 6 weeks or so is half a term... I work in a school & we all call it half term lol

I say half term. Its just short hand for 'school holiday'.

It also means I dont have to keep remembering all the names of the terms that different schools use.

I work with kids and have a lot of meetings with schools, interesting that Im probably making them inwardly curse me when I keep talking about 'the half term', lol

Who cares, its a school break, holiday, week off, half term, end of term, easter, christmas, summer whatever. The kids are off

I have never heard of Christmas or Easter holidays referred to as half term. The October February & Whitsun & ones fall (roughly) in the middle of Autumn, Spring & Summer terms.

Someone said 'half term' in a meeting today about the holidays just coming up. I didnt correct her, I knew what she meant, everyone in the meeting knew what she meant.

Whitsun? What the hell even is that, what is that word, who speaks like that

School holiday

I don’t think people really care, because it’s relatively unimportant!