Half term is attached to the spring bank holiday at the end of May, giving schools a week that runs from a Monday already off. The examination season starts in the same weeks: SATs for primary pupils, then GCSE and A-level papers from the middle of the month onwards, which makes May 2028 an unusually tense month in households with teenagers.
Leave in May 2028 is efficient leave. Four days of annual leave taken around either bank holiday produces nine days off, and doing it around the early May holiday keeps clear of the half term crowds at the far end of it. It is the most heavily used bridging opportunity in the British calendar.
The turn from May into June takes the country into the outdoor season proper: Trooping the Colour, Royal Ascot, the festival season and the start of Wimbledon at the far end of the month. May 2028 hands over its two holidays to a month that has none at all.