Year 8 students at Hollyfield School in Surbiton will get an extra week's holiday after they were told not to return to school until Monday next week, because 13 teachers were stuck overseas after planes across Europe were grounded in the volcanic ash crisis.

The school also told year 9 students not to come in on from Wednesday to Friday this week, but said they were keeping the situation under review.

The crisis left schools across Kingston without 145 teaching and non-teaching staff, with Holy Cross school also changing their timetable to close one session early on Monday after eight staff were absent. Three primary school headteachers were also stuck abroad.

However, quick thinking by teachers leading a group of Richard Challoner School students in France ensured they hired a coach that brought them back in the UK in time for the start of term.

Tiffin Girls' suffered 65 student absences, believed to be the highest in the borough, with Latchmere missing 47 students and Coombe Hill 30.

The Icelandic eruption left an estimated 150,000 other Brits many stuck, and with the exception of scientific test planes, there was no air traffic in the skies all weekend.

Now, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed the Royal Navy will help ferry stranded Britons home from Spain.