Short answer
Keep your weekly pattern for term time and agree a separate plan for the holidays on top of it, as Cafcass suggests. Half terms often give the other parent a long weekend or the whole week. The summer usually goes in one- or two-week blocks, and Christmas and Easter are often split and swapped each year. Get your dates from the council or school, then agree each break three to six months ahead with every handover written down.
This guide is general information, not legal advice.
How we share the school holidays
My sons live mainly with their mum, and I have them every other weekend, from Friday after school to Sunday afternoon. The school holidays sit on top of that. Over a whole year, I'd say I have the boys for about a quarter of their school holidays.
How much time I take depends on my work schedule, and most of it is built around my usual weekends. Their mum and I agree it between us, and we plan new dates three to six months ahead.
How the UK school year is laid out
In England a school year has three terms, and each one is broken by a one-week half term. On top of those come the Christmas and Easter holidays, about two weeks each, and roughly six weeks in the summer. Schools need to open for 190 days (380 sessions) a year, which leaves about 14 weeks of weekdays without school once you count inset days and bank holidays.
The exact dates are set locally. In England and Wales each council publishes its own, and you can find yours with GOV.UK's school term and holiday dates finder, which takes your postcode. Academies, voluntary aided and free schools can set their own dates, so if your children are at one of those, check with the school before you plan anything. Two children at different schools can have different half terms.
The rest of the UK runs to a different calendar:
- Wales. The Welsh Government publishes approved school term dates for 2026 to 2027, with a one-week October half term and the summer term ending on Tuesday 20 July 2027 in most councils (Friday 16 July in Powys).
- Scotland. Each of the 32 councils sets its own dates, and the summer holidays start in late June. In Edinburgh, the 2026/27 school year ends on Tuesday 29 June 2027.
- Northern Ireland. The summer holidays run through July and August, from 1 July to the start of September, according to the Department of Education.
Cafcass, which advises the family courts in England, suggests that school-age children have separate routines for term time and holiday time. Its free parenting plan template, Our Child's Plan, asks parents to agree how holiday time will be shared.
Ways to split half terms
Half terms depend on work for me. It's difficult to have every half term off, so I normally have the boys for a long weekend around each one. In the past I've had them for a whole week when my work schedule allowed.
A half term is usually nine days if you count the weekends either side, and that's what makes it awkward. One parent often has one of those weekends already, so the week can tip heavily one way unless you plan for it. These are the common ways to share it:
- A long weekend for the other parent. The parent who has the children less in term time stretches a weekend next to the half term into three or four nights. This is what we do. It fits around a working week. The trade-off is that the parent at home covers most of the weekdays, so they need childcare for those or time off.
- Split the week. Each parent has half, with a handover in the middle, often Wednesday at 12:00. If you have an every other weekend schedule, whoever has the weekend before the half term can keep the children until Wednesday. It costs an extra handover.
- Alternate whole half terms. One parent has October and May and the other has February, then you swap the next year. Each parent gets a proper week, long enough to go away, but the children can go nine or ten days without seeing the other parent.
Count nights, not days.
When you compare options, count where the children sleep. A Wednesday 12:00 handover in a half term usually leaves one parent with five nights and the other with five or six, which is easier to agree than arguing about "half a week".
Ways to split Easter
Easter is often a long weekend for us, when my fortnightly weekend lands on it. The Easter holidays are usually two weeks, and in England they normally include Good Friday and Easter Monday, which are bank holidays. When a regular weekend falls on Easter, those two days turn it into four.
That gives you a choice about the Easter weekend itself as well as the fortnight around it:
- Let Easter follow the weekend pattern. Whoever's regular weekend lands on Easter has the long weekend, and the rest of the break follows your usual plan. It needs no extra negotiation, but it doesn't swap neatly, so one parent can miss the Easter weekend more than one year running.
- Alternate the Easter weekend. One parent has Good Friday to Easter Monday in odd years and the other in even years, with the rest of the fortnight divided around it.
- Split the break into a week each, with the handover on the middle weekend.
- Alternate the whole break by year, which works best when one parent wants to take the children away.
If you're not religious, Easter Sunday may matter less than the four-day weekend. If one of you marks Easter at church or with family, say so early so the plan can protect that day.
Ways to split the summer holidays
In the summer I normally have the boys on my usual weekends, plus another one or two weeks depending on my work schedule. We agree which weeks well before the holidays start.
Six weeks is a long time for a child to be away from either home, so the summer needs more planning than the other breaks.
| Option | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Regular pattern plus a week or two | The usual weekly pattern carries on, and the other parent adds one or two weeks, often for a holiday | Parents whose work makes long blocks hard. It's what we do |
| Two-week blocks | Two weeks with one parent, then two with the other, and so on | Families who want a holiday each without long gaps |
| Alternate weeks | Week on, week off for six weeks | Younger children, or homes close together |
| Split in half | Three weeks each, with one handover in the middle | Parents who both want a long run of time, or a trip abroad |
The first option leaves the parent who does most of the school week with most of the summer too. If that parent works, the plan needs an answer for childcare on the weekdays in between, which I cover in what to agree in advance.
Whichever you pick, think about the last few days before school goes back. It helps if they're with the parent who does most of the school week, so new shoes and uniform can be sorted before the first day of term.
Christmas, bank holidays and inset days
Christmas follows a pattern for us that swaps each year. One of us normally has the boys for the days before Christmas, including Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, and they go to the other parent after Christmas Day lunch. New Year's Eve goes to one of us, and that swaps too. We settle it three to four months ahead. Other families split the whole holiday in half and alternate which half includes Christmas Day. Our guide to Christmas for separated parents goes through the options in detail.
Their mum and I plan the bank holidays months in advance as well, and who has the boys depends on where the days fall. Bank holidays are easiest when you agree a rule, for example:
- a bank holiday Monday goes with whoever has that weekend, so the weekend simply runs to Monday
- or the bank holidays alternate through the year, regardless of whose weekend they touch
England and Wales have eight bank holidays a year, listed on GOV.UK's bank holidays page. Several fall inside school holidays, so they come with the Christmas, Easter and summer plan anyway.
Inset days (teacher training days) are easy to miss. Schools usually have five a year and they're often stuck to the start or end of a holiday, so a half term can quietly become ten days. Councils publish recommended inset days, but schools choose their own, so ask the school office for the exact dates in September and decide who has the children on each one. Otherwise a working parent finds out the week before that they need a day of childcare.
A worked example: one way to share 2026/27
This example uses Suffolk County Council's school term dates for 2026 to 2027, including its recommended inset days. Your council's dates will be different, so use it as a model and swap in your own dates.
The example family has a pattern shaped like ours. The children live mainly with you and stay with Blake every other weekend, Friday after school to Sunday at 17:00. Blake's weekends start on Friday 11 September 2026 and run every fortnight. The holiday plan overrides the weekend pattern, which carries on underneath and picks up again when school starts. The family's rules are:
- In each half term, Blake's weekend nearest the break becomes a long weekend of four nights.
- At Easter, Blake's weekend lands on the Easter weekend this year, so it runs from Thursday after school to Easter Monday.
- At Christmas, one parent has the days before and Christmas morning, and the other has Christmas Day from after lunch. New Year's Eve goes to the parent who had the days before. It all swaps next year.
- In the summer, Blake keeps the usual weekends and adds one week.
- A bank holiday goes with whoever has that weekend.
| Break (Suffolk 2026/27) | With Blake | With you | Nights |
|---|---|---|---|
| October half term: inset Friday 23 October, then Monday 26 to Friday 30 October | Thursday 22 October (collected from school) to Monday 26 October at 17:00 | Monday 26 October to Monday 2 November, back to school | Blake 4, you 7 |
| Christmas: Saturday 19 December to Sunday 3 January, inset Monday 4 January | Friday 18 December (collected from school) to Christmas Day at 14:00. Thursday 31 December at 12:00 to Sunday 3 January at 17:00 | Christmas Day from 14:00 to Thursday 31 December at 12:00. Sunday 3 January to Tuesday 5 January, back to school | Blake 10, you 8 |
| February half term: Monday 15 to Friday 19 February | Friday 12 February (collected from school) to Tuesday 16 February at 17:00 | Tuesday 16 February to Monday 22 February, back to school | Blake 4, you 6 |
| Easter: Friday 26 March to Sunday 11 April, inset Monday 12 April | Thursday 25 March (collected from school) to Easter Monday 29 March at 17:00. Friday 9 April at 10:00 to Sunday 11 April at 17:00 | Easter Monday 29 March to Friday 9 April. Sunday 11 April to Tuesday 13 April, back to school | Blake 6, you 13 |
| May half term: Monday 31 May (bank holiday) to Friday 4 June | Thursday 3 June at 10:00 to Monday 7 June, taken to school | Friday 28 May (collected from school) to Thursday 3 June at 10:00 | Blake 4, you 6 |
| Summer: from Thursday 22 July (term ends Wednesday 21 July) | Friday 30 July to Sunday 1 August. Friday 13 to Sunday 22 August (a week away). Friday 27 to Monday 30 August (bank holiday) | All other nights from Wednesday 21 July to Wednesday 1 September, back to school | Blake 14, you 28 |
| Early May bank holiday: Monday 3 May | None (it falls on your weekend) | Runs on from your weekend | None extra |
Across the year's holidays that comes to 42 nights with Blake and 68 with you. Blake's share is higher than the long weekends suggest, because two of Blake's regular weekends fall inside the Christmas holidays this year. Next year the Christmas halves swap, and the long weekends move with the weekend pattern.
Planning ahead has always meant both parents and the children know the plans.
George Pritchard
Some things in the example are worth copying whatever your dates. Most handovers that fall on school days happen at the school gate, which is often where ours happen too. Every break is written down with its handover days and times, so there's nothing left to work out the week before.
The plan has three weak spots:
- Christmas has four handovers in 18 days. That's the price of sharing the day itself, and some families prefer to swap whole halves instead.
- You have 28 of the 42 summer nights, many of them working days, so you need a childcare plan for most of the summer.
- Under the bank holiday rule, the only term-time bank holiday in 2026/27, Monday 3 May, falls on your weekend, so Blake gets none outside the school holidays. If that feels lopsided, offer it to Blake.
To see how the holidays change each parent's total for the year, put both patterns into the parenting time calculator, which lets you add holiday nights on top of the regular pattern and take off the regular nights a holiday replaces.
How far ahead to plan
We normally plan new times, such as holidays, anything from three to six months in advance, and sometimes more if it's a wedding or something similar. At the moment it all happens on WhatsApp, with the odd chat in person at handovers. We also try to keep plans in sync across three households.
None of our holiday plans has gone wrong. Planning ahead has always meant both parents and the children know the plans.
A rough timeline that works with council dates looks like this:
- When the council or school publishes the year's dates: put every break in one place you both look, including inset days.
- Three to six months before each break: agree who has which days, with handover times.
- Earlier for fixed dates: a wedding or a holiday abroad, and summer holiday clubs, which fill up.
- A few weeks before: confirm the details, such as who drives and what the children need to pack.
What to agree in advance
Trips away and holidays abroad. When one of us takes the boys away, we don't share much detail. We normally say where we're going and anything we might need for the boys. A trip abroad needs more than that. GOV.UK says you need permission to take a child abroad from everyone with parental responsibility, or from a court. The one exception it gives is that a parent named in a child arrangements order as the person the child lives with can take them abroad for up to 28 days, unless a court order says otherwise. Taking a child abroad without permission is child abduction. Agree how much notice a trip abroad needs, and have the parent staying at home give the travelling parent a signed letter of permission. GOV.UK says a letter is usually enough, and suggests also carrying evidence of your relationship with the child, such as a birth certificate. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, check the rules there as well.
Swapping weeks. Plans change, and a good holiday plan says how. Agree how much notice a swap needs, and that if you take one of the other parent's days, you offer a day back.
Childcare on working days. Holiday time with the children is often time you still have to work through. I work remotely, so sometimes I can have the boys while I'm working. They play with their stepbrother and stepsister, and their stepmum is around while I'm busy. Not every job allows that, so say who covers which working days, and whether family or a childminder will help.
Holiday clubs and costs. Holiday clubs are expensive. Coram's Holiday Childcare Survey 2026 found an average cost across Great Britain of £191 per child per week, or £1,145 per child for the six-week summer holiday. If your children have special educational needs or disabilities, places are harder to find: only 9% of councils in England could say they had enough holiday childcare for at least three-quarters of children with SEND in their area. Agree who books the clubs and how you share the cost, and book early, because popular weeks fill up.
Travel. Decide who drives for each handover, or whether you meet halfway. If one of you lives a long way off, a holiday is a good time for longer blocks and fewer journeys.
Packing. Agree what lives in each home and what travels with the children. Medicines and passports are the obvious ones. School uniform at the end of the summer is the one that gets forgotten.
Teenagers, jobs and children's own plans
A holiday plan for a seven-year-old won't fit a fifteen-year-old. Older children have friends and part-time jobs, and by Year 10 or 11 the May half term is often revision time.
Cafcass makes the point that older children can benefit from longer periods with their other parent, and that children's wishes, such as their hobbies and activities, should shape the plan. If a dispute ever reaches court in England and Wales, one of the things the court must consider is "the ascertainable wishes and feelings of the child concerned (considered in the light of his age and understanding)", under section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989.
Think about the children, not just yourself, and try to come to a good agreement that's fair.
George Pritchard
Outside court, taking that seriously can mean:
- asking older children which weeks they'd like at each home before you fix the summer
- letting a teenager's job or match fixtures set the handover day
- accepting that a sixteen-year-old may want to spend part of the summer with friends instead of with either of you
- keeping the conversation about where they'd like to be, so they never feel they're choosing between parents
Ask, then decide.
Ask the children what they'd like, but let the parents make the final call. A child who is asked to choose between two homes is being handed an adult's job.
Free school holiday planner
Download the free school holiday planner as a printable three-page PDF. Fill in the dates from your council or school first, then decide each break together. You can fill in one copy each or one shared copy.
The planner has three pages:
- Your names, your term-time pattern and a grid for the autumn term: inset days, October half term, both parts of Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and the bank holidays.
- Grids for the spring and summer terms: February half term, both halves of Easter, the Easter weekend, the early May bank holiday, May half term and each week of the summer.
- A checklist of what to agree for the year, from trips abroad and swaps to holiday clubs, driving and next year's Christmas and Easter.
What I'd tell a parent planning the holidays
If I had one piece of advice, it would be to be fair and communicate. Think about the children, not just yourself, and try to come to a good agreement that's fair.
Any schedule can work if it suits the children and everyone sticks to it. The holidays are when the routine changes most, so that's where planning ahead pays off.
If you're still choosing the weekly pattern underneath, start with typical child contact arrangements and how an every other weekend schedule works.
Our holiday planning still lives on WhatsApp at the moment. I tried other apps and none quite worked for us, so I've been building one we can use. In Two Front Doors, you add the school holidays on top of your regular pattern, and when a holiday ends, the usual routine picks up again. It won't decide the holidays for you, but both homes work from the same dates.
Sources
- GOV.UK, School term and holiday dates
- Suffolk County Council, School term dates 2026 to 2027 (download and booklet text)
- Suffolk County Council, School term and holiday dates (academies note; autumn 2027 start date)
- Welsh Government, Approved school term dates 2026 to 2027 (updated 16 July 2025)
- City of Edinburgh Council, School term dates 2026/27
- Department of Education (Northern Ireland), School holidays
- GOV.UK, UK bank holidays
- Cafcass, Our Child's Plan (Planning Together for Children)
- Cafcass, Planning your child's time with both parents after separation
- GOV.UK, Get permission to take a child abroad (updated 9 January 2025)
- Coram, Holiday Childcare Survey 2026 (16 July 2026)
- Children Act 1989, section 1, legislation.gov.uk
