THE Edensor teachers’ novel approach to educational travel – leave the kids behind – provoked a knee-jerk reaction from some quarters.

The furore was only to be expected. Bold innovation often invites controversy.

And yet when prejudice is set aside, the idea of teachers and pupils going on separate school trips does have much to recommend it.

In my view, the Edensor staff’s term-time trip to Marbella might have been justified if the entire student body had been sent on a simultaneous excursion to Ibiza.

In any event, the existing arrangement vis-a-vis school trips – that pupils travel abroad under the supervision of teachers – has never been a satisfactory one.

In such circumstances, children feel that teachers cramp their style, while teachers are unable to unwind when they are expected to a keep a round-the-clock watch on several dozen disorderly 13-year-olds.

As the Edensor staff have demonstrated, both sides would much prefer to travel abroad separately and do their own thing. For one thing, teachers and pupils seldom see eye-to-eye on the matter of destination.

I myself only once went abroad with the school. It was a coach trip through Belgium and Holland to the Rhineland, taking in such thrilling sights as the Dutch Tulip Fields. How many 13-year-old boys long to travel hundreds of miles to look at flowers?

Left to our own devices, we might have preferred to undertake a scholarly study of the nightlife of nearby Amsterdam, but this was not an option.

Nor did we relish the prospect of spending a day in Cologne – or what was left of the city after Bomber Command had finished with it.

Our teachers invited us to gaze in awe at the cathedral which alone survived the carpet bombing. We suspected we’d be about as welcome in the city as the RAF had been, and wondered why we couldn’t have spent a day at the Munich Beer Festival instead.

The teachers might have felt the same, but they could hardly explore the fleshpots of Amsterdam or enter fully into the spirit of the Oktoberfest with us in tow.

I realise that reactionary elements will dismiss the notion of separate schools trips as madness.

Clearly, the fear is that if parties are allowed to go off on their own they will bring disgrace on themselves, the school and the UK itself.

And it is true that some teachers can lose all sense of proportion when they let their collective hair down overseas.

Without the restraining influence of children, they might easily run riot.

To be serious, though, my nephew Ben has been campaigning for his year to be allowed to travel abroad as an unescorted group.

He and his fellow scholars have even agreed on a destination that will make the trip a learning experience, as well as an enjoyable one.

“Las Vegas is lit up all the time, so it wouldn’t matter if we were out after dark,” he argues. “Playing the gaming tables is an excellent test of mental arithmetic, and there’s nothing like an afternoon on the fruit machines for learning the value of money.

“Vegas is also a recognised centre for the arts, and we should be able to catch a different floorshow every evening, and perhaps even meet some of the showgirls.”

Ben tells me that he has reached impasse in negotiations with the school staff.

“The teachers have said we can go to Las Vegas, but only if they can come too.”