School holiday

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

School holidays are the days (or, more usually, weeks) in which schools are closed between academic terms.

Contents 1 Common school holidays 1.1 Christmas holiday 1.2 Easter holiday 1.3 Summer holiday 2 Variations by country 3 Common practices and effects

[edit] Common school holidays

[edit] Christmas holiday

Christmas or Winter break (sometimes called winter recess) takes place during the Winter, and includes both the Christmas and New Year holidays. In the southern hemisphere, Christmas holidays are in Summer. In high schools, the winter break generaly takes place in February. In some schools, especially colleges, both the Christmas and winter break will be "merged" into a month-long holiday.

[edit] Easter holiday

Easter holiday is a school holiday that takes place in the Spring, with the date varying by country and level of schooling. In the USA, this is called "Easter break" or "Spring break".

[edit] Summer holiday

The terms "summer break" and "summer holiday" are often used to refer to the large break from school and university taken during summer (usually August and some time before and after).

In the USA, summer break takes place for a few months between May and September, depending on what scheduling system to school uses, and whether it is high school or college. In England (United Kingdom) , the school summer holidays usually begin in July and last through until September. Scottish (United Kingdom) schools tend to start their holidays earlier and finish them earlier, while, in Ireland, second level school holidays last from the beginning of June until the beginning of September unless a student is doing Junior or Leaving Certificate exams.

[edit] Variations by country

In the USA, secondary schools typically start their classes in August or September and end in May or June, with both spring breaks and Christmas holidays being included. In universities on the quarter system, Christmas holiday directly begins at the end of the autumn quarter, spring break is at the end of winter quarter, and summer break is at the end of spring quarter. It varies from school to school, depending on the scheduling system. Some universities on a trimester also have an autumn break.

In England (United Kingdom), there are a number of school holidays. The academic year usually begins during the first week of September, this period up until Christmas is known as Autumn Term. In the last week of October, there is a week off known as half term, which is the halfway point between Summer and Christmas holidays. The Christmas holiday usually begins a few days before 25 December and ends a few days after 1 January. Again, there is a week off half way through the term (Spring Term) and a 2 week break for Easter. After Easter is summer term and the 3rd half term break is the half way point to the summer holidays. Summer itself usually begins towards the end of July.

In Australia, the major school holiday is in the southern hemisphere summer and that ranges from Mid-December until the last day of January. Two weeks is then given in April during the Autumn, Another two weeks in July during the winter. The spring break is for two weeks and takes place in October.

In Japan, school holidays take place from the end of March through the beginning of April, from the end of July until the end of August, and over the New Year period from 24 December to 7 January.

In Norway, school holidays vary by region. For example, recognised bank holidays fall on different days in Østfold and Oslo, Christmas holiday is a few days longer in Aust-Agder.

In Germany, summer holidays are mostly between July and late August with regional differences. Some regions begin as early as beginning / mid June, some end as late as start of September. They last 6 weeks. Other holidays are around Easter (usually 2 weeks) and Pentecost, in autum (usually 1 week) as well as mid / end of December - beginning of January.

In Austria, the summer holidays are mostly between late June and early September. Autumn break (late October), Easter break and the mid-term break (late February) all last for a week. There are also four free days during Pentecost and various free days during religious holidays (assumption day, ascension day, Corpus Christi etc).

[edit] Common practices and effects

Summer holidays for most children are a time to relax, enjoy, and cover up on studies. It's also the time when most families go for an outing.

School holidays have many effects on a country, ranging from the price of a vacation, which is increased while children are off school, to an increased crime rate. There can also possibly be a decrease in traffic levels on some school run routes and other commuter roads as people take vacation time from work to spend time with their children.

Countries like Germany, where many commuters use the highway to get to their holiday destinations, separate holidays into regions, decreasing the number of overlapping holiday beginnings and therefore reducing the risk of traffic jams during these high-traffic periods.