Family Annual Leave and School Holiday Planner

Who this is for

The year's time off, planned around the school calendar. Enter the school holiday periods, then each adult's booked leave, and the sheet shows how much leave each of you has left and how many school holiday days still need someone at home.

Working parents fitting two leave allowances, trips away and childcare around the school year, and anyone sharing that planning with a partner or ex-partner.

What this helps you track

• Every school holiday period with its length in days
• Which holiday periods each adult is off for, and the days still uncovered
• Each piece of leave, what it is for and whether the employer has agreed it
• Days used and remaining for each adult against their own entitlement
• Where a trip away fits without running either allowance dry

How to use it

1. Write the year, each adult's leave entitlement in days from their own contract or employer, and who Adult 1, Adult 2 and the children are, with their school.
2. Copy the school holiday periods from your school's published term dates, with start and end dates.
3. Tick who is off for each period, or whether other care is arranged, so the uncovered days show.
4. Enter each piece of planned leave with the person, dates, working days it uses and what it is for; tick when the employer has booked it.
5. The days, the per-adult columns and the summary are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, add each adult's days and take them from the entitlement.
6. Revisit the sheet each term as leave is agreed or plans change.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Where does the leave entitlement come from?

From your contract or your employer's records. Enter it in the header in days; the sheet takes each adult's planned leave from it. It supplies no entitlement figures and does not know about bank or public holidays unless you include them.

Why do I enter the leave days myself?

Because working days depend on your own pattern. A week off for someone who works four days uses four days, not seven, so the sheet uses the figure you enter rather than counting calendar days.

What does uncovered days mean?

For each school holiday period, the days in it when neither adult is ticked as off and no other care is ticked. It counts the whole period as uncovered or covered, so split a period into weeks if you share it.

Can it plan for more than two adults?

The per-adult columns are set up for two. For a third person, such as a grandparent helping out, use the other care tick on the school holiday table and note who in the notes.