The summer hols are here and we’re going to have a jolly wizard time!

They might not be visiting Kirrin Island but Will Gore and his children at least sound like the Famous Five

Enid Blyton may have been surprised to learn that her linguistic skills ‘slay’ a modern ‘fam’ (Getty)

School’s out, and children across the country are excitedly planning for the blissful weeks ahead, filled with fun, frolics and far too much time staring at screens.

Parents, on the other hand, will experience an initial burst of gratitude for slightly less hectic mornings, before remembering the bitter reality of trying to juggle work, holiday clubs, play dates, tantrums and the rest of it. There will almost certainly be tears before the end of week one.

A few days before the end of term, my son wandered into the kitchen with sparkling eyes to tell me that the “hols” were nearly upon us. He paused, then added: “Do people even call them ‘the hols’ anymore?” I admitted that a lot of people probably didn’t, while reassuring him that it was, nonetheless, a perfectly reasonable word to use.