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.

Yes it's irritating. I've only noticed it in the last couple of years but I've even heard a couple of teachers doing it so there is now no hope!

But the next holiday is the Easter holidays and that is a cross I will die on (did you see what I did there?)

YANBU. It really annoys me especially when one of you is talking about an actual half term arrangement and the other thinks you mean Easter.

Thank you. That makes sense. Thirteen weeks would be very hard on both students and teachers. No wonder there’s a break during each long term.

YANBU . The next holiday is Easter and then next half term is May. 2 very different things. DD's college timetable very clearly describes everything as either

End of Term
Half Term
Start of Term

I think you need to get a grip. All I know is - school is closed, I need to sort childcare.

This confuses me. I’ve just started sticking with it’s the school holidays.
Whats the correct expression to say to the kids, it’s the end of the school xxx ??

You forgot the other part, you need to be prepared for rain and/or colder weather. Whoever chose the timing of school holidays when compulsory education started in 1870 must have invested in umbrellas or raincoats.

yanbu. this drives me absolutely spare! It's literally in the name - HALF term. As in halfway through. Calling the 6 week summer break a half term makes zero sense but I know so many people who do it. I have a relative who calls the Christmas holidays "the winter half term" and I have to bite my tongue every time not to correct them.
And yes, "term" has officially lost all meaning and just looks like a weird collection of letters to me now after reading that 😂

I hate this also but I really hate when people call it 'Whitsun' as well. I never heard that phrase growing up so it just sounds so weird to me and I've yet to work out if its a specific holiday or half term or just any half term? I just hate it.

I’m guilty of this. Sorry 😬🤣

Ive heard that word as well and never know what people are talking about. I think Ive looked it up a few times too!

I always think its someones name and get muddled!

Why

With Easter I think I probably do call it that sometimes to my friends with kids as it's not at a set time each year. I'm also not sure how long Easter break is?
Plus I don't have kids!

But Xmas and summer holidays I would call it that as they're a lot longer? I think. Or it's more obvious what it's for.

I only ever heard in it Enid Blyton books where all the kids went to expensive private boarding school.

October half term
Christmas holidays
February half term
Easter holidays
May half term
Summer holidays

They're all holidays, not "breaks"! And yes, the half term holiday is always in the middle of a term!

Wonder if it's because fewer people celebrate Easter in the traditional sense? So they apply less thought to it.

It should be called the Chocolate
Holidays! 😁

FWIW our secondary school receptionist calls everything a half term and it's really confusing! Especially in newsletters and on their official term dates page

The December, April and summer breaks are after full terms though.

Yes! We got an email from the swimming school advertising intense courses for ‘Easter half term’

As someone who comes from a different schooling system to the UK with quite different terms, thanks for explaining!

This really bugs me after years of teaching!

Except for our Hoover, which is in fact a washing machine 😂

@sorrynotathome YANBU it's fucking annoying. If someone asked me today what our plans for half term are I'd be like, fuck knows, that's months away. I genuinely wouldn't realise they meant the Easter holiday. Obviously I'd work it out, but it's not correct. It's like if someone asked me the way to the Tesco Express when they really meant the 24 hour Tesco Superstore. Not the same thing!

But it's not short hand, the other holidays ARE half terms!

I do ask.

(About 95% of the time, if it's on MN that I'm asking, I get a sneery comment saying "God, it was obvious what they meant! Why are you such a pedant?")

No, because holiday only refers to national holidays, not whenever schools are off.

July 4th = holiday
June-Aug off school = summer break