Summer School Holiday Advice

Our last CAO listed who had what in the 6 week summer holidays with our boy of 8 yrs.

She asked that I had weeks 1, 4 & 5 and she had weeks 2,3 & 6, which I agreed too.

The school released the holiday calendar at Christmas time so I informed her of my dates. The school broke on on Friday 23rd July, so week 1 starts Saturday 24th July, her weekend.
I asked if she wanted to keep that weekend and I'd start the first week on the Monday and if she didn't reply we'd stick to the first week starting on the Saturday, I got no reply.
I mentioned it again in February but again got no reply.
I mentioned collecting our boy on the Saturday morning twice in the couple of weeks before the holidays and got nothing back.

So, I turned up at the house to collect my boy on the Saturday morning only to get a text that it was her weekend and she was not letting our boy come out and if I didn't leave she would call the police.
I replied by saying I would wait 15 mins for her to let our boy come out or I'd have to take matters further. He didn't come out. I left and returned to collect our boy on the Monday.

Now, I asked 7 months before, 5 months before and twice 2 weeks before, obviously she wanted me to turn up at the normal time for her to have the power to deny contact.

I could have quite easy booked a Disney holiday for my boy to be heartbroken by his mums actions.

So can I ask who is right and who is wrong.

If there are only 6 weeks and the school breaks up on the Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, when is "week 1"?

Any advice appreciated before I return this issue back to court to clarify.

I would have thought that week 1 would begin on the first Monday the children are not in school, with the weekend before then following the usual weekend contact arrangements.

Ita important to ensure that court orders define when contact begins and ends - ie from 9am on the first Monday of the school holidays. This prevents any future misinterpretation or confusion around when the holiday weeks begin and end. I wish Judges would be more prescriptive when drawing up orders.

If this continues to be an issue, then you may need to return to court to amend the order to include clearly defined start and end details.

Hi Rubytuesday,

Thanks for your reply and I agree, why don't they make the orders water tight to start off with knowing the problems ahead.

I hear what you are saying but if the school say break up on a Wednesday and its ex's weekend, she would have had 4 days already out of the allocation which then means the weeks we have allocated would fall down.

The order states that our son is with me "week 1" not the "first week". It appears to have different meanings to different people.

My thinking is its the first day after the school breaks up because that's when the 6 weeks start. I'm not really bothered who has our son when, I took the matter back to court to get all the holidays defined to hopefully put an end to her attempts to mess with me and my sons holiday time together, obviously she still intends to try.

The solution I only have to to take it back to court to enforce the order and see what they say and make it more detailed than at present, any thoughts?

Week 1 is the same as the first week, surely?

If children break up on a Wednesday or Thursday, the first full week of holiday time doesn't start until the following Monday.

I don't see that there's anything to enforce?

Hi,
If the school breaks up on the Wednesday say, the first day of the holidays is Thursday?
If its ex's weekend as well, she has had the first 4 days, if I then have "week 1, 4 & 5" there's not enough days for ex to have "weeks 2,3 & 6", as she would only have a part week at the end, hope I've tried to explain that correct.

In that instance then it means your ex has had a part week at the start and at the end. Would it be easier to just class the weeks as "week 1 being the first full week of the holidays from Monday after the school breaks up".

As long as the 2 week blocks fall in the Summer holidays it seems simpler than adjusting round the day school actually breaks up each year

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I think it would be a lot easier if an ex sorted the holiday dates out 7 months before they actually started to prevent any misunderstanding, but unfortunately mine seems to get enjoyment out of it.

"Week 1", as the order states I have, seems to have different meaning to different people. I was going to return it to court to enforce as I see "week 1" as the first full week after the school breaks up, the very next day after as that's when our allocation starts, "week 1, 4 and 5" for me and "weeks 2, 3 and 6" with ex.

What I've decided to do this time is to apply her understanding on the order and I'm going to message her saying that in future to prevent any issues on the holiday dates, if it's her weekend when the school breaks up, my "week 1" will start on the first Monday, as she stated it was for this year, and if its my weekend, my "week 1" will start then. Hopefully then she can't mess me and my son round because it's what she has stated this year.

Thoughts?