School Question About Australia

This question is from iheartmetees .

She asks: What months do children go to school there?? Is it Aug/Sept to June like the US?

No, Iheartmetees, it's not. The reason for this is that our seasons are opposite to yours! June is the middle of our winter, and we don't get snow (in cities, where most of our population is). Our Summer is at Christmas time, so the summer/christmas holidays are combined. The children get a six or seven week holiday over Christmas/Summer, starting around the 11th of December and ending at the end of January.
The school year is divided up into four terms (two semesters), unless you live in Tasmania, where they kept the old three terms a year format (and I believe they get longer holidays). Each term is about 10 weeks long, some are shorter or longer depending on quite arbitary seeming things, and there is a two week break in between each of them.

Something that I consider good or interesting about this system (not that you can help it with your crazy backwards seasons :P ) is that it is the same calendar year for their whole school year. 2009, they ARE in year 3. Or whatever.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around only having a short holiday for Christmas!