<P> The school year in the United Kingdom is generally divided into three terms running from autumn to summer . For state schools, the school year consists of 195 days of which there are 190 teaching days and five INSET teacher training days . For independent schools, the school year can be as short as 175 days . The structure of the school year varies between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom with school holiday dates varying between local education authorities . </P> <P> Before the mechanisation of agriculture and when more of the population lived in the rural countryside, the long summer school holiday in Britain arose in the 19th century as a result of the education authorities abandoning the battle to keep children at school through haymaking (around the start of August) and wheat harvest (around the end of August), when every available pair of hands was needed on the land . </P> <P> In England and Wales, the school year generally runs from early September until late July of the following year . Most schools operate a three - term school year, each term divided in half by a week - long break known as "half term" (although some counties, like Oxfordshire, consider these to be six separate terms instead), and are structured as follows: </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Term </Th> <Th> Months covered </Th> <Th> Half term break </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Autumn </Td> <Td> early September to mid-December </Td> <Td> late October / early November </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Spring </Td> <Td> early January to shortly before Easter </Td> <Td> mid February </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Summer </Td> <Td> shortly after Easter to late July </Td> <Td> late May / early June </Td> </Tr> </Table>

When does the october half term start 2017