Holiday split planner: United Kingdom

How to split your school breaks

1. Open Edit holiday settings. Select England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Their bank holiday lists differ; use the division that applies to your plan.
2. Enter the first and last dates of each school break. Both dates are included; use the dates from your school.
3. Choose halves, alternate years or set days. For halves and alternate years, choose who goes first in odd years; the other parent goes first in even years.
4. For set days, add parent date ranges covering every day of the break once, without gaps or overlaps.
5. Check the allocation summary, browse one week at a time and read the holiday coverage notes. Save, share, print or export both parents in one calendar file or either parent separately.

How it works

Breaks use inclusive calendar dates. A break from 18 December to 2 January includes both 18 December and 2 January. The planner counts calendar dates, not legal parenting-time percentages or overnight stays.

Halves gives the first parent half the dates, rounded up when the total is odd. The second parent receives the remaining dates. A one-day break therefore belongs to the first parent. With alternate years, the whole break belongs to the selected year's parent. The year in which the break starts decides odd or even ownership, including a break ending the following year.

Set days lets you enter specific first and last dates for each parent. Every date must be assigned once. Adjacent ranges for the same parent are combined in the output and calendar export. Breaks cannot overlap because that could assign a date twice.

Public holidays are reference markers, not changes to your allocation. Actual calendar dates, published observed dates, additional holidays and part-day holidays are labelled separately. Regional coverage and supported years are shown beside the result. Missing holiday data is identified explicitly; an unmarked date outside coverage does not mean there is no holiday.

School holidays are entered by you and are not inferred from public holidays. Official holiday data is stored with this site and does not update live. Check the source dates and your school's calendar before relying on a plan.

Calendar downloads contain all-day blocks for both parents or the chosen parent, with the end date set to the day after the last included date. No handover time is assumed. The planner does not replace an agreement, court order or legal advice, and does not merge these allocations into a repeating custody calendar.

The United Kingdom page covers 2027 and 2028 bank holiday lists for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Local holidays and school term dates are not supplied. Check the relevant local authority and school calendar.

Actual calendar dates and published substitute bank holidays are labelled separately. For England and Wales in 2027, Christmas Day is 25 December and Boxing Day is 26 December; the substitute bank holidays are 27 and 28 December. A substitute marker does not move a Christmas or Boxing Day parenting arrangement automatically.

Worked example

United Kingdom: select England and Wales and enter an illustrative Christmas break from 18 December 2027 to 2 January 2028, with halves and Parent A first in odd years. Confirm the actual break with your school:

• Parent A receives 18 to 25 December: eight calendar dates, including Christmas Day.
• Parent B receives 26 December to 2 January: eight calendar dates, including Boxing Day.
• The 27 and 28 December substitute bank holidays fall in B's block. The actual Christmas and Boxing Day dates remain separate markers; the substitute dates do not override either parent's allocation.

Common questions

Related tools

• Custody schedule maker
• 2-2-5-5 custody calendar
• Parenting time percentage calculator