Right now its the only Jamfest competition in Europe (as far as I know). And I think for Jamfest this is a great opportunity to get more spectators to this competition. Since worlds is way too expensive for me (coming from Germany) I'm more than glad that 2 great teams will be in England. I already looked up prices to go there just to watch the 2 winning teams (and I truly don't care who will win because they will all be awesome to watch!).
Jamfest Europe is in June - I would say that most (if not all) kids are out of school for summer by then, so they shouldn't even miss one day of school.