Hey there Teacher Tappers!
Almost everyone is on holiday this week! Woohoo! From everyone at Teacher Tapp – we hope you are getting as much rest as possible!
Invite Teacher Tapp to your ECT regional events
If you organise ECT regional events and would like Teacher Tapp to come along, please get in touch! Email England@teachertapp.co.uk.
Two-week October half-term
The number of schools opting for a two-week holiday for the first break of the academic year has been on the rise since we first asked in 2023. Three years ago, 7% of state schools had a two-week October break; today that has doubled to 14%.
It appears not all schools are equally interested; secondary school teachers are more likely than primary school teachers to report a longer break (17% vs 11%).
Favourite holiday
And continuing on the topic of holidays, we did some deep-dive work looking at which holidays are the most favoured…and what that tells us about the sort of teacher you are!
- Summer holiday is the most popular holiday, picked by 58%, followed by Easter (19%), Christmas (13%), October half-term (5%), May half-term (3%) and February half-term (1%).
- Christmas is most popular with younger teachers: 1 in 5 teachers in their 20s pick it, compared with fewer than 1 in 10 of those aged 50 and over. The longer teachers have been in the profession, the more likely they are to pick summer.
- Around 1 in 4 headteachers choose Easter, compared with fewer than 1 in 5 classroom teachers.
- Private school teachers are more than twice as likely as state school teachers to pick October half-term (11% vs 4%), perhaps because many get two weeks off. However, we don’t have any theory to explain why, in the North West, 1 in 15 teachers pick May half-term, double the national figure. If you think you know why, please tell us!
- London teachers are the biggest fans of the summer holiday (62%). And the Midlands has the most Christmas fans of any region (17%), and the South West is the keenest on Easter (23%).
- All of the above is interesting BUT we have to caveat this with the statement that timing matters: when we asked in February, only 6% chose Christmas, but in October it was 13%. Somewhat reasonably, whichever break is coming up next is the favourite. Plus, when we checked, even teachers who told us their favourite break in February had changed their mind by October: 3 in 4 summer fans stayed loyal, but only 41% of half-term fans picked the same break again.
A Teacher Tapper asked…how much teaching do senior leaders do?
This week, a Teacher Tapper got in touch to ask how many hours of teaching senior leaders and headteachers do.
In primary schools, it is far more common for senior leaders to have no timetabled hours for teaching, when compared to secondary senior leaders (23% vs 6%). The picture looks similar for headteachers, with more primary heads reporting they don’t have any timetabled teaching hours vs secondary headteachers (66% vs 45%).
If you have a question you would like Teacher Tapp to check, get in touch and let us know! England@teachertapp.co.uk 📧
6-7 down…but not out!
Our slang-checker question has been keeping an eye on the different words students have been using.
⬇️ The good news, the 6-7 peak appears to have passed, with just 52% of teachers reporting that they heard it used that week, compared to 65% in July 2026, and a significant drop from 90% in December 2025.
⬇️ Brainrot and Rizz also appear to be on the decline, with 10% of teachers reporting they heard brainrot, down from 14% in July, and rizz is at 7%, down from 9% in July.
Let us know what new terms we should be looking out for!
Daily Reads
The most-read tip was all about the SEND reforms! Nearly 1 in 10 of you clicked through (9.7%), and it was particularly popular with senior leaders with 15% of SLT and headteachers clicking it! With so much still to come on the reforms, we’ll be keeping a close eye on what you think…
There are so many great blogs out there, and we love featuring them on Teacher Tapp. If you have a blog you think we should feature, please email us at England@teachertapp.co.uk, and we will check it out!
