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As the heading says:

How do you refer to the day/half day of fun activities that schools usually have at the end of term?

I'm not sure what it's like in English speaking countries, but I guess you have something similar as we in my country do – on the last day of school before the Christmas break or summer break, kids gather in their classrooms and have something nice to eat, perhaps watch a film etc, and then the whole school (or less, depending on how big the school is) gather in the auditorium together with friends and family, and the different classes perform in different ways, and so on. In my own language we call this day "finish", so "Christmas finish" and "summer finish", but I'm pretty sure that's not what it's called in English ;)

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    Northampton High School in the UK has this post, which includes the sentence Normally, on the last day of term we have a half day with no lessons and many celebrations of the end of term. If there was a standard word for that "no lessons" day or half day, I'd expect to find it somewhere on that page. But there isn't, so I didn't.
    – FumbleFingers
    Nov 18, 2021 at 13:10
  • @FumbleFingers Thank you! And thank you so much for taking the time to go through the page for me!! I suppose I'll just have to rephrase then :)
    – Lillatanten
    Nov 18, 2021 at 13:13
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    The administrators and teachers in the UK often refer to any "schoolday" with no scheduled lessons as an inset day, but that normally implies the pupils don't go in to school on that day (it might be for "teacher training", for example). And depending on the season, the last day of term might be identified as Sports Day, but that won't always match your requirement.
    – FumbleFingers
    Nov 18, 2021 at 13:21
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    In many US schools, there's an event called "Field Day", although that usually revolves around various competitions, often outdoors (the "field" is the same as "track and field" in the Olympics).
    – Canadian Yankee
    Nov 18, 2021 at 14:21
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    @CanadianYankee Right! Good to know! (I learn a lot today :)) In my language that would be called "idrottsdag" (="Sport's day"). (God I used to hate those... XD)
    – Lillatanten
    Nov 18, 2021 at 14:28

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There is no commonly used word that is universal for this in the English language, but the suggestions in the comments such as "sports day" and "field day" do apply in some places to describe days off of school when the purpose of the off-day is for sports or competition on the field. Another commonly used term for this is "track-and-field day".

However, what about if the students have the day off of school for a reason that has nothing to do with sports or competition? Some words that have been used in Ontario (Canada) are:

  • P.A. Day (stands for "Professional Activity Day" though it's commonly called incorrectly as "personal activity day").
  • Snow Day (when the reason for the day off is because there's too much snow).
  • Holiday / Vacation Day (when the reason for the school not being open is due to something like a public holiday).
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