Paris attacks: Shropshire school postpones trip to France

St Martins School, in St Martins, near Ellesmere, has decided to put off its trip across the Channel next month after taking a parent vote on the situation.

Pupils in years eight and nine had been looking forward to a languages trip to France on December 1.

But Sue Lovecy, the school's headteacher, said she was thrilled the travel company had agreed to postpone it.

She said: "We are very lucky that our travel company, NST has agreed to postpone it. I am very pleased.

"The government advice has been that obviously trips shouldn't go before November 22 and anticipate that they will extend that.

"But we have been in a difficult situation being after that date.

"We can't hang around when you have parents and children to think about so we spoke to NST earlier this week and thankfully they agreed to postpone it.

"I think we are going to wait until outside the three month state of emergency and then have another look.

"We had a parent's meeting last night and went through the whole process that we have been going through in detail.

"Then we had a vote and it was a unanimous vote to postpone it."

Mrs Lovecy said that while the group wasn't actually going to Paris, there were trips to Disneyland Paris as well as various places along the coast, based from a château.

But she said that long delays in the tunnel along with risk elsewhere in the country could have turned it into an "absolute nightmare".

She added that staff and parents were grateful to the travel company for working with them during the process.

Mrs Lovecy said: "We have said a huge thanks to NST - they have been so willing to help us."

It comes after the UK Foreign Office this week advised British schools against upcoming trips to France, in line with advice given by the French authorities after the Paris attacks.

As part of the national state of emergency, the French ministry of education cancelled all school trips within France by French schools until after Sunday.

This includes excursions to cultural sites and travel by school groups on public transport.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has recommended that British schools planning to take groups to France between now and 22 November follow the French ministry of education's advice not to travel.