We call them all "half term" here..

[Acc0untant]

And apparently I'm unreasonable. I see comment after comment about "it's not half term, that happens half way through each term" but ever since I was a child I, and everyone I know, calls each holiday a half term other than summer and Christmas. My parents and the parents of my friends (bearing in mind I'm in my 30s) have always done this.

Is it regional? I'm in the midlands. It's not just students/parents here, teachers use it this way, our school communications. Not even just my experience with one school, it was the same at my secondary school, my daughter's primary and secondary, my other child's nursery etc.

For us this is because we have a holiday after every half of a term, not that the holiday is half way within the term.

I appreciate that this wasn't the original intention of the phrase but at what point do we accept it's fine to use? Same as staycation originally meaning to do day trips from home rather than a UK holiday, it's now been used for both for so long that it's colloquially acceptable for both meanings.

Please no bun fights, I can't be bothered. I appreciate the pedantry with things such as this (and I can be that way with other stuff) but I'd really just like a nice, chilled conversation about it.

Do you say half term for almost all holidays? What region are you from? Would enjoy seeing if there's a correlation.

Midlands too. Here we have half term / Christmas / half term / Easter / half term / summer.

Which has fuck all to do with this.

Same. Easter, Christmas, October week etc.

I'm from Kent and I've only ever heard the Easter holidays called the Easter holidays, definitely not half term.

I now live in Berkshire and my daughter's head teacher started referring to the Easter holidays as Spring Break a couple of years ago. It didn't catch on though and it's been referred to as Easter holidays again this year.

There was some decision made years ago that all 6 chunks of the school year would be called separate terms, but it just didn't really catch on. Most schools still either officially or unofficially see it as 3 terms divided into 6 half terms. If you look at the term dates on schools' websites or even the county council websites, they are always (in my experience) listed as the start and end dates for autumn term, spring term and summer term, and under each they give the dates for the half term holidays. That's been the case in all the schools where I've taught (in SE and NW England) and it's certainly that way on the county website here - I just checked!

Honestly it just makes people sound stupid. It isn’t a holiday after every half of a term. There are holidays half way through a term, and holidays in between terms.

Lancashire website for example:

https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/children-education-families/schools/school-term-dates-and-holidays/

I noticed that when we moved to Kent. Never could get used to it.

I am a teacher in the Midlands - I am enjoying my Easter holiday - it is absolutely not half term at my school (or any others I have ever worked at in my 30 year teaching career.)

I worked in an SE England school where we had summer holidays, Christmas and Easter holidays, the week in between were called half term, the school year had three terms, thus the middle week off was half term.

then all the terms got labelled 1 to six, Sept to end October term 1, Oct to Christmas term 2 etc…

BUT no one called them this and the Oct, Feb , end May beginning of June were still called half term even though all terms ended with a holiday 🤦‍♀️

South East
We say October half term, Christmas holidays, Feb half term, Easter holidays, May half term, Summer holidays

I’m in the Midlands and it’s always been ‘half term’ for the week break in the middle of a term, and ‘end of term’ at the end of the winter, spring and summer terms. Then it’s Christmas holiday, Easter holiday and Summer holiday. It winds me up when people say half term at the end of a term. It makes no sense to me… it’s a full term at the end of a term, and a half term midway through 🤣

I’ve always known the bank holiday at the start of May is ‘May Day’ and the one at the end of May as Spring Bank Holiday, or Whitson if you’re religious.

Half term, Xmas hols, half term, easter, whitsun, summer hols

Far south west here

It's just irritating for me as it's wrong. Easter isn't half term.

I am not sure if I could be arsed to correct someone on it although I kind of always want to.

Rarely hear it in my neck of the woods though.

I don't understand what is gained by inaccurately renaming the Easter school holiday half-term.

Surely doing so conveys less information because it's replacing a specific description with a vague and inaccurate one and is likely to lead to confusion.

I’ve lived in the Midlands since I was 5, now 49 and it’s only in recent years I’ve heard all the holidays referred to as half term. Not a regional thing at all. Also I’m with all the people who say half term holidays are only the holidays that are half way through the term, then it’s Christmas, Easter and summer holidays.

I’m 41 and lived in various parts of the midlands.
growing up every holiday was “half term” it’s just means the schools have broken up.
I didn’t actually realise the difference until I had children myself and was trying to navigate the nursery funding and when they qualified.
If I’m talking to my mum about seeing her then I say its half term. If I’m talking to my children I refer to them as Christmas Easter and big summer holidays but still sometimes slip into the half term catch all

Drives me mad and now I work in a school where even the staff do it 🤣

No. It’s Easter holiday, summer holiday, and Christmas holiday. Half germ is the week holiday in the middle of the term.

never ever heard of all holidays being half germ. It makes no sense

I'm in Scotland. Holidays are -

Christmas, Easter, Summer & October (tattie)

We get a long weekend in Feb, May and Nov which have recently started being called half term but they are less than a week so don't really feel like holidays.

Im a teacher and it’s not something I’ve ever thought about.

I would personally say Christmas Holidays/Easter Holidays/Summer Holidays for those three, then the Oct, Feb and May ones are all “half term” to me, as they are, well, halfway through the term. But if someone referred to the Easter hols as being “half term” I don’t think I’d notice or care.

Christmas = Christmas holidays
Summer = summer holidays
Everything else = half term

I'm in Yorkshire

NE Scotland here.

No idea why anyone would comment on what it’s called unless it’s a thread like this where people are specifically asked to discuss it. It’s so annoying. Someone starts a thread titled ‘Stuck for ideas over half term’ or whatever and dozens of posts are just people correcting the OP about her terminology. Surely to Christ by now we all know that there are regional variations.

It’s:
Autumn 1
HALF TERM
Autumn 2
Christmas holiday
Spring 1
HALF TERM
Spring 2
Easter holiday
Summer 1
HALF TERM
Summer 2
Summer holidays