What irony that as the war on truancy gathers pace, it is revealed that a parent removed his two children from primary school for SIX months to go on a 'life-enhancing' trip.

And not just any parent, a HEAD of school governors.

You just couldn't make it up.

The average parents stand little chance of taking their children out of school for two weeks to avoid the obscene premium prices of term-time holidays.

Yet Richard Lawrence-Wilson saw it fit to set a bad example and go on a jaunt for half the year with his two young children and just a handful of spelling and maths lessons tucked in their rucksacks.

What possible education value can there be for a seven and nine-year-old traipsing round Australia?

Even Mrs Lawrence-Wilson admits it would have cost too much to do the same trip during the school summer holidays.

This smacks of absolute hypocrisy, and schools struggling with truancy have got no hope of solving the problem when a governor sets a precedent like this.