Speaking from experience,

In terms of functionality, I believe this design is far superior in the sense that it provides more space for planning ones time efficiently. I am going to look at re-addressing the months included on the calendar, not only dismissing August but also sending July in the same direction as we break up the end of June.

In order to produce a functioning calendar design I had to apply dates and visually identify weekends and bank holidays for the next acedemic year. Luckily I found an accurate source providing calendar layouts for the next few years.

After laying out each individual date, I identified weekdays from weekends. Also started to further whole design, looking at the kerning in the top left title and date..

To attain the texture used for weekend dates, I simply used a preset texture. It did the job sucessfully untill I wanted to start realising colours, unable to change the colour of this texture I worked on creating my own simple lines.