SCHOOL pupils from Oxford have been barred from staying with foreign families on exchange trips abroad because of increasing fears over paedophiles.

It means young people travelling to Holland next week will sleep on a sports hall floor rather than at the homes of Dutch exchange students.

Foreign students aged under 16 will also no longer be allowed to stay with families in Oxford.

Oxford City Council says it is following the advice of headteachers and "erring on the side of caution" with the move - which follows highly publicised deaths of children abroad and increasing fears over safety.

But some exchange trip supporters fear the cultural and educational value of staying with a foreign family will now be lost forever.

May Wylie, international officer for Oxford City Council, said: "School children have to be very carefully supervised these days. We cannot do that if

they are all in different places.

"There have been some cases of young people being killed because of a lack of supervision. Local authorities are very aware of this sort of thing. We have got to be seen to be taking every precaution."

Several exchange trips a year are arranged between Oxford and its twin cities of Leiden in Holland, Bonn in Germany and Grenoble in France.

The new regulations follow a trip by Marston Middle School pupils to Leiden when the headteacher insisted pupils were supervised and did not stay with foreign families. Now all children aged under 16 on council-organised trips, including sports and youth club members, will be forced to find alternative accommodation.

About 70 young people from organisations including the Pegasus Youth Theatre and Oxygen student radio will sleep in sleeping bags at a municipal sports centre in Leiden during a four day trip next week.

Don Rouse, chairman of the Oxford-Leiden Link, said the young people chose the venue themselves rather than paying for a youth hostel or hotel.

He said: "It is cheaper and it means there is room for them to sleep side by side with their Dutch twins so there is a closer link. Can we guarantee that there are not homes with a child molester? It also takes away that element."

Mr Rouse added: "I have built up a Dutch family during my 35 years of twinning. I do not know if children are now going to miss out. I am going to watch with interest."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.