Flys4Funs - Yes, you are essentially correct. In the Summer 3 of the months can have 8, 10 and 11 days off consecutively; the winter three of them can have 9, 10 and 11. Golden days can easily be booked to achieve a weekend day off in the 6 remaining months if required.
Breakdown for clarity:
Summer - 10 day block (7 leave + 3 wrap days), 11 day block (7 leave + 4 wrap days), 8 day block (Duty Free week plus one ‘non-assignable’ day).
Winter - Same 10 and 11 day blocks, Duty Free week is now 9 days instead of 8 (agreed in the recent pay settlement).
The only caveat is that leave is bid for on a ‘points’ basis. If you take unpopular weeks (mid-November, say) these are worth about 6 points and Christmas week is worth 1 point. Your points total over a rolling 4-years is then used to decide who gets first pick of leave next time around. It’s a fair system which means everybody gets a reasonable crack at having popular time off, summer holidays for instance. What it does mean in practice is that new-joiners won’t necessarily have first choice leave straight away.
For completeness, LGW system is very similar except that all six leave and duty free blocks are 10 days long including wraps, and the golden days are called ‘trump days’ which can be taken in six pairs rather than six individual days off; therefore a whole weekend off can easily be achieved in every month of the year if desired (if not more than one during the quiet winter).