To get irritated by people who call every school holiday Half Term?

[sorrynotathome]

How can you not know that the half term holiday is in the middle of the term? After the first half and before the second half. At the end of term is the Easter, Summer or Christmas holidays. Do some people think Half Term is an English word for schools being closed? Now I’ve typed term so much it’s started to look weird.

this irritates me too!

I hate this too, and it is becoming more prevalent.

Yep, drives me up the wall, though common enough now that I’ve stopped getting confused about when people are talking about.

I find it more annoying that school now says they have six terms instead of three. It was three when I was at school. Why do they now call each half term a full term?

I agree - it's so confusing!

-Have you got plans for half-term?

• Err, no I'll get the Easter holidays out the way first, haven't even thought about the end of May yet.

-No, it's only 2 weeks away.

I do wonder whether it's because they are named after Christian festivals. Are we taking the US approach if everything being a 'happy holiday'?

I sat in a meeting recently where the setting called each half term a term. So they kept saying we were in term 3 in January. Very confusing.

Agree with this, DC school have started doing it and it's really confusing. Surely having 6 terms means none of them should be called half term now?

Yes, it's weird and slightly irritating. Life would be simpler if people just used the words that correspond with what they mean to refer to.

(Often you're left trying to work out whether you should assume someone got it wrong, or whether it's rude to assume that and you should ask for clarification.)

Even just saying 'school holidays' would be preferable if you don't want to differentiate between them when talking about them.

Surely having 6 terms means none of them should be called half term now?

Exactly.

I call everything a half term

I dont think I refer to Easter as such

Oh, that’s funny, I was just saying this this morning!

The Easter holidays aren’t a half term! They’re at the end of at term, or if you like before the next one. There’s nothing “half” about them!

If you don’t want to name religious holidays for some reason, just say “the holidays” or “the spring holiday” or something. Although I don’t think anyone actually objects to people saying Easter in real life - that’s why the holiday is when it is (slight digression but just trying to think of why people might have starting saying “half term”)

Everyone knows what they mean when they say it, basically short hand for the next break from school…

people don’t tend to call Christmas or summer “half term”
May and October are half term.
so basically it’s only the Easter holidays which are being misnamed, and to be honest, between Christmas and July I barely know which month it is let alone the semantics of what you call the next bit of time the kids aren’t in school.

As long as I’ve managed to arrange childcare for the holidays and have sorted out all the trips/kits/clubs/uniform/shoes/lunches before they go back then I’m winning (I don’t care what you call it)

Why? You must realise it is wrong?! It makes no sense! The Easter break is not half way through a term it is at the end of the term.

Loads of my colleagues say this too and it drive me crazy.

If the spring two week holiday isn't Easter any more, how are shops going to shift all those metric tonnes of chocolate eggs?

Yes, it's just stupid

Irritates me massively and I’m ashamed to say that when a friend referred to half term coming up I passive aggressively said “oh you mean Easter”

YANBU it annoys me ...
however i caught myself doing it just yesterday !!

At docs making follow up appt for DD i said we've got half term coming (meaning Easter)

wtf?!?

I corrected myself so loudly folk glanced up

NO!!! Not half term !!! Easter !!!!
🤣

I couldnt tell you where in the year anything is or whether something is a term or not a term. So I just use it for short hand for holiday. I say summer or xmas although I reckon Ive probably said half term for xmas at times too.

Oh cross posted, yes same here, I just know its a holiday from school!!

Couldnt tell you what the day of the week it is half the time.

It especially annoys me that the schools do this. I often feel like there's no hope for the future.

Not as annoying as the peopke who use the class WhatsApp to ask question where they could look for the answers themselves.

Everyone knows what they mean when they say it, basically short hand for the next break from school…

That's not true - I don't know.
They could mean February or May half-term, which is why they used those words, or they could mean any school holiday.

"We've booked this cottage for half-term - do you want to come?" - I wouldn't be booking annual leave for Easter based on just that and no further clarification.

Just say 'school holiday' if you don't want to differentiate.

Yanbu. Idiots.

So why not say "holiday" rather than using a different phrase that means something specific that isn't what you actually mean?

It's a bit like calling an apple a pear because they are both green and basically the same if you just want fruit.

Doesn’t bother me, it’s the break after each half of a term so it’s not even incorrect in a way.
Here it’s called mid term, which has its own issues because English people often ridicule it and despite America’s customs being largely other countries apparently absolutely everything must have originated there, but when I was in England everyone in work largely called it half term whenever it fell, often because not everyone has kids in primary and most people really just don’t care, they just know more annual leave will happen.