As students across the country prepare themselves for three short months of summer glory, students around the globe get ready for a brand new semester or the best break of their lives. Children up to the age of 18 have different term breaks in countries around the world. Even Freedom students break differently than schools around the United States.

In Japan, students in public schools are allotted two months of summer break, starting in mid-July and taking them to Sept.1, the start to their next school year. What is technically considered secondary education begins in seventh grade, but Japanese High School does not start until 10th grade. Another difference is that Japanese students don’t start school until the first grade.

According to the website “School Holidays of Europe”, primary schools across the majority of the UK have multiple breaks, much like school in the U.S., with summer only lasting from approximately mid-July to the beginning of September. Their school holidays consist of a short Autumn term break, February half-term and holiday breaks for Christmas and Easter. An additional fun fact about the UK school system is that they attend “college” at ages 16 to 18, which is actually just harder high school courses called A levels. They then attend a university from ages 18 to 21 to get degrees.

Students in Spain are only required to attend secondary education up to the age of 16. After that, students attend “Spanish Baccalaureate,” which requires less courses than American high school and focuses on electives to help a student prepare for a future career in the arts, STEM or human and social studies. Their summer break lasts from January until September, and students get Christmas and Easter breaks, which means in comparison to the previously-mentioned countries, students in Spain receive the longest summer break.

Other countries around the world all have their own summer and holiday break regimens that differ between borders and regions. Poland only offers break from the end of June to the end of August, leaving theirs a few weeks shorter than ours. Students in Germany go on summer break in late June or early July and go back to school anywhere from August to October; however, students receive autumn, winter and spring breaks.

While we, as American students, are usually disappointed by the shortness of what averages to be three months, we find ourselves to be very lucky in comparison to countries who only get about a month and a half.