In the US where I write this, it's back-to-school season! In most districts, school starts in late August or early September. Some kids are back in the classroom already!
Inspired by Steve's Free for All Friday No. 860 in May, here's a map showing when the school year starts around the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, school most often starts in September, which marks the beginning of Autumn. In the Souther Hemisphere, it usually starts during the summer (December, January or February).
 |
| Credit: Reddit user Zenkaino-Lovelive How about where you live? I like this time of year because all of the back-to-school sales are a great opportunity to buy supplies like pens, pencils, paper, etc. As always on Friday, feel free to discuss anything related to ring-bound organizers! |
The map shows the UK as starting in September. However in Scotland schools start in early/mid August. Usually before the 15th.
ReplyDeleteI know that because it allows us to get the same holiday a lot cheaper by flying out of Glasgow airport only 2.5 hours train ride away and a short bus I think. Saves us a thousand pounds on two adults and one kid!!
DeleteAIUI Netherlands stagger summer holidays across the country so there is no costly mass exodus. I think holiday starts moves across the country in weekly waves. Belgium might do that too. Overall a much better idea I think.
In Germany, summer holidays are also staggered by "Bundesland", and most participate in a swap within the sequence to get holidays at different dates over the years.
DeleteSome families try to reduce flight cost by simple using an earlier flight, reporting their kids sick at school. Some get caught at the airport, and the fine is up to 1000 Euro per child.
Hans
I’m from the East Midlands in the UK. School break up used to be staggered so that families could holiday on the east coast. It was synced with the factories closing down for two weeks. Leicester went first with the first two weeks of July, then Nottingham with the next two weeks. Finally Sheffield would close for two weeks. It ensured there were enough caravans and B&Bs to accommodate everyone, it was introduced in the 60s. Now factories often don’t exist in the same way and don’t simultaneously close it’s been standardised a lot more I think. The ‘July Fortnight’ was a big thing for us, we holidayed in Chapel St Leonard most years.
ReplyDeleteThe US is a mix and a mess, like a lot of things here, with roughly the southern part of the country starting in August and the northern part in September. Over my lifetime I've seen more schools switch to an August start.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the most useful reference information in your Filofax? I am looking for inspiration for things I might research and include in mine.
ReplyDeleteCurrently I keep:
A calendar for lawn maintenance.
A list of activities and sites by distance from my home ( helps speed up the - what should we do this weekend - discussion)
A list of dates of sporting events for the year
A list of art events for the year
I have also started making local maps using Open Street Map for places I am visiting.
I used to wade through a Pears Cyclopedia and extract interesting lists of facts from there but they don't publish it anymore.
For work I keep a booklet printed copy of the ISO standard I need for my job. I also keep an Initialisations / Acronyms page for company jargon. We have so many of them that the company has a sharepoint page just for them. However the ones used in my department has many that never made it into them. So I have to hunt around to find the meaning. Once I find out a new one that is not in the company sharepoint I put it in my filofax.
DeleteLike Paul I have a list of work acronyms I can refer to quickly. I use a tube map fairly often and I like a map of the UK so that I can see where places are located in relation to each other. I also like the paper sizes reference sheet that is published on this site which has an array of paper sizes but also the print ratios too, saves me lots of time and paper as I don’t need to do it via trial and error. I haven’t used Open Street Map before but printing maps from it is a great idea.
DeleteAll French Public Schools finished on the 4 July and they all go back again on 1 September. So the roads are a total nightmare every weekend!
ReplyDelete