I am not sure abotu the private system but in the public system, if you take half pay, during school holidays that fall during your mat leave you get full pay. So thats at least 2 holidays as your mat leave would fall over 2 terms.

I found it also good to be getting a smaller amount of money spread over a greater time, that combined witht he baby bonus fortnightly payments into my account kept us on a pretty gooo dticket for 6 months.