Can I ask something that doesn't seem to have been considered in 16 pages of this thread so far? Why is it that the majority of children, their parents and teachers should have to suffer for what is arguably a minority of people, whose children suffer during the holidays?
I work in a school with extremely high levels of deprivation and everything that brings with it - children of the eternally jobless (for whichever reason, of which there are many), children of drug addicts, children at risk - you name it, most of our children have experienced it. So I know and understand what happens to these children during the holidays.
But funnily enough, school isn't the answer for them. It isn't in term time, when they'd far rather care for their siblings/ parents, work in their after-school jobs or visit their mental health team. It would be even less so if we extended the term.
I sometimes get the feeling that mumsnetters who argue how much more school would help those in poverty have never experienced working with children who are properly poor. Well, I have. And aside from my own health, which has suffered greatly this year teaching 25+ children for however many lessons a day, teaching them stuff they don't need and which isn't relevant to them in the slightest in order to get them a qualification, which won't help them much, these children can barely cope with the demands of school as it is.
School isn't the answer to all of society's ills. We need more free activities (I live well away from my school, but in a council with lots of free, volunteer-run stuff on offer during the holidays), better access to food banks, better social care, more health visitors, more social workers. Not more structured lessons, more irrelevant knowledge.
And as for the vast majority of children, who do not live in poverty: they need this time to become socially aware and socially competent. Because one thing driven out of schools for the sake of better behaviour and constant learning is actual unstructured time, in which the kids learn all the soft communication skills they will actually need later on in life.
And I, for one, like spending time with my children. We go on holiday once a year and we barely do costly things over the others - maybe one or two high-cost parks or swimming places in a year. But my children do other stuff, which they would not have time for otherwise: build dens, go on long walks, do simple crafts with rubbish and natural materials, write postcards and letters, have Nerf gun fights, play ball or whatever else it is that we fancy.
By the way, our childcare costs are horrendous; we pay for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week and retainers over the holidays. Comes with being a teacher, but I still prefer that to not being able to see them at all.
Cut the holidays and count me out.