Schooled to succeed

North Wales Tourism's chairman Chris Jackson, who is also the Welsh Mountain Zoo’s administrative director in Upper Colwyn Bay, said: “The feeling generally is that it has been a below par Easter to date, that’s largely due to the weather. But the English schools still have the best part of two weeks on holiday so there is still hope that we can get something back from visitors.”

The Liverpool and Manchester education authorities started the 'official' Easter break on Monday, and don't return until Monday 19th, so there's time for the visitor numbers to pick up in what is a crucial period of the year for our tourist-related businesses.

The Easter break is a mixed blessing for most comprehensive schools;  few outside of the school world realise that many bring in their A level and GCSE students for revision, extra work and tuition, all in the teachers' own time. Eirias - to give one example - has always run a full timetable for students during the Easter break, which can be invaluable, as a concentrated period of working - free from the distractions of school bells, lesson changes and those who simply don't want to work - can make the difference between an A and a B grade in the results.  Those who condemn the education system would do well to remember that it's because of the selfless effort of so many local teachers that our schools locally are among the best in the country and - in the case of Eirias - the best in the UK.