American checking in, wondering what the standard school holiday schedule is in Scotland. This is for a piece of fiction I’m writing.
Here’s the approximate sort of answer I’m looking for, except it describes American public schools:
The school year starts in mid-August
There might be a 2-3 day vacation at the end of September, called Fall Break
Thanksgiving and the day after are always off
Two weeks at Christmas, usually with Christmas Eve the first day off
A week at the end of March, called Spring Break
School year ends in early June
The absolutely crucial thing to realise about Scottish school summer holidays is that they were traditionally - and I’d guess still are - set forward relative to their English equivalents. By a couple of weeks.
Growing up in the Seventies and Eighties, this led to all sorts of weirdness in children’s TV programming over the summer. It really was terribly obvious to us in Scotland.
Depending on when your fiction is set, I’d suggest that getting the peculiarities of this sort of stuff exactly right might be crucial. For an outsider, all these details are probably revealingly awkward.
That’s exactly the sort of thing a writer would need to know. My lads are shipped off to their aunt’s television-free house the instant the holidays begin, otherwise, I’d use it
One time when my family took our annual holiday in Scotland towards the end of the English summer break, my mother was questioned quite sternly by the local bobbie as to why us children were not in school.
Bear in mind that, in England at least, the dates of school breaks are not statutory. That is individual schools, or more realistically, local authorities have some flexibility on the actual dates. For example, I live in Worcestershire and my children broke up for summer a week before their cousins in London. Private schools may also have different dates.
Sometimes these dates are timed to coincide with traditional shutdowns of local industry.
Fife School Holidays. Linky
Important fact that may or may not be useful. The October holiday was traditionally known as the tattie holiday. This was from the time when school boys were expected to go work on farms to go tattie howking (Potato harvesting). I know people that went howking at least up to 1987.
Growing up in Scotland, The holiday TV programmes didn’t start until late July. Then a TV series might come on that you would be keen on watching. But mid August came round, and you had to go back to school, meaning you missed the last couple of episodes. And despite you asking your Mum to record it, she never remembered. DAMHIK
When I was in public school in Maine, I had a week off in February ( Winter break), the week of presidents day. We also had our spring break in April, during the week of Patriots day. No fall break, although we did get Columbus day and veterans day off.
The October holiday brings back fond memories, not that I ever went tattie howking myself … (as if) …, but I would suggest that it wasn’t so much a case of boys being “expected” to work at the tattie howking, it was more a case of the boys actively welcoming the opportunity to earn some extra cash.
