I’m a teacher and parent of several (now adult) children. There will always be some families where education of any kind isn’t a huge priority and some for whom it is very important. Families from both camps make decisions about term-time holidays. For those for whom education isn’t a big deal, the holidays probably won’t have any educational benefit, though that doesn’t mean that holidays are not intrinsically a good thing. For those who do prioritise education, even a bucket and spade beach holiday can be academically enriching.
My kids regularly missed the last week of every term because we went to live in France for several weeks three times a year. In that time, they all became moderately fluent French speakers, learnt French and European history and geography, did loads of sport with local youngsters as part of the village school holiday programmes, and acquired a good understanding of French and Breton culture, music, religion, arts and food. Travelling to and fro meant they all learnt to read road maps, handle money in two different currencies and cope with managing tickets, passports and getting through port formalities patiently and efficiently. It was like doing a French exchange three times a year at no cost to the school. Nowadays, I’d be considered a bad parent and fined for providing such an enrichment to their education. I’m inclined to think that if I were raising children now, I’d seriously consider home-schooling rather than deferring to the increasingly aggressive and rigid demands of the current education system.