Oh sweet Jesus this is going to be fantastic..

We had a week every term. Autumn term it was October. Spring term it was February. Summer term....can't remember. May I think? After that it was exams.

this reminds me of a guy who recently drove the wrong way up the A1, killing someone in the process, and when the police questioned him he said "how long has this road been one way??"

Good luck trying to get hold of anyone senior with kids this week. They're all off skiing or in the Maldives.

Buzz just intrigued as most people I know are away with the kids for half term but I never went on a half term holiday as once you factored in traveling to and from school we had about 3/4 of a day off.

FFS. 

I can’t even be arsed.

Exeat, pursued by beer.

I'm just not sure that starting a thread in which you disclose that your formative years were so detached from the experience of over 90% of the population that you are unaware that, for decades before your own schooling commenced, all but about 7% of kids in England enjoyed a week long half term is going to go very well.

But heh @ Clergs, nailed it!

Half term has been a thing my entire life.  maybe your parents disliked you so much they paid to have you incarcerated for those weeks?

There are boarding kids at my sons school who stay put for half term. I presume they notice everyone else is gone, but maybe not based on this....

i don't know of any private school that doesn't have half terms every term. 

To be honest Wang there have been times where I'd have chosen incarceration over being with my parents for a week.

Buzz you might have already noticed that I'm too bothered about whether a thread goes well.  Was just after an answer to the question which I have now so from my point of view mission accomplished.

To answer mr Hargreaves most of the private schools around here have longer Xmas, Easter and summer holidays but half term is just a week. 

That said they go to school on saturday morning and have a longer school day in the week so it evens out 

Linda we had half terms every term but they were never a full week.  I think you've nailed one of the reasons they were so short which was the fact that for some kids to go home for a week involved at least two full days' traveling and so instead they'd be sent off for a few days with another family who lived closer to the school.

I'm beginning to think Tompkinson's Schooldays was actually a documentary.

What's "Prep School"? Is it a special type of school? 

Reading Saillaw’s threads is increasingly like getting a glimpse into a really weird parallel universe 

Raddy it is a preparatory school that prepares you for being bummed at big school.

Reading Saillaw’s threads is increasingly like getting a glimpse into a really weird parallel universe 

It's like being enveloped in a helium-filled balloon where the outside world is an opaque fug that has no impact and all there is to do is float and smile.

Heh @ saillerz 11:01 tbf

Sails, a quick look at your old school's terms dates shows that they do have half term each term they just call it something poncy

Phoebs not saying we didn't have half term but I wasn't anything like a week.  Seems they have extended it to a week every term these days and yes it's called leave out because you're given leave to be outside the school grounds just like an open prison.

Wot wang said.

It has always been a thing.  Private schools usually get longer holidays than the state sector.  I think your parents just didn't want you let out.

No wonder you're a dappy twot. You grew up in some fooked up reality man 

Prep skoolz have all moved to having week-long half-term hols but only in the last twenty years.  

They have always had, and continue to have, longer holidays overall. 

For the Chinese children (which is about 20%) this is not a break.  Many of them are tutored 6 hours a day every day in the holidays.  

Kimmy my dad is an arch pessimist so my rebellion against my parental influences is to be unceasingly cheerful and look for the bright side in everything and must admit it's also helped me get through the absolute shit along the way as well.

I think your parents chose a school where contact was minimised.

the prep school I was at had a week off every term for half term and (I think) an exeat weekend as well in the Michaelmas term.

you can't be much older than me (having left that school in 89 aged 13)

Boarding school for primary age children is so weird. So weird. 

Same age as you Clubbers.  We had a lot more exeats at my prep school but none at secondary school as we were allowed out all day every Sunday.

Not really Linda.  Instead of being an only child at home in the middle of the country with a dog for company I lived with a bunch of friends I'd known since birth and then a few others I'd known since I started school.  Basically every night was a like a sleepover at a friend's house.

I went to a school very much like the one pictured above, and even we had half term.

Were there just some periods when the school got much, much quieter than usual?  I think that will have been when everyone else went on holiday and your parents left you there?

I am astonished to learn you are an only child.  Astonished. 

Are your pants on fire too?

Heh @ Linda

some schools even have 2 week half terms in the michaelmas term...

I want to post a picture of the school room in the Muppet Christmas Carol, but I am too untechy. And look how he turned out.

If you want to call Saillaw a muppet Pumpers, I say just go for it.

Which muppet just out of interest? 

I was actually thinking you were Michael Caine, Sails, since he was the boy who had to stay at school when everyone else went home and clearly the Ghost of Christmas Past thought it explained a lot aboutthe grownup he became.

But, since you ask:

https://ohmy.disney.com/quiz/2015/06/04/quiz-which-obscure-muppet-are-you/

Apparently I'm Thog so big blue and nicest guy in the room.

Is Buffoon a muppet?

The absolute cocking state of this thread