No alcohol for school sixth-formers, says council

A school which wanted to serve alcohol to sixth-formers at social events has been told it cannot do so.

Queenswood, a girls' private school in Hertfordshire, said it wanted to introduce an "educational" system of alcoholic drinks vouchers for 16 to 18-year-olds at occasional evening social events.

However, a county council health consultant criticised the idea, saying it risked "normalising" drinking and there was no educational basis for it.

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council rejected the application, citing the lack of a proposed alcohol policy at the school as one reason for refusing it.

It is legal for 16 and 17 year olds to drink beer, cider or wine with a meal as long as they are with an adult.

The decision to refuse this application was taken at a meeting of the council earlier this week, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Stephanie Hall, head of catering at the school, told the council’s alcohol and regulated entertainment sub-committee that pupils who had permission from parents would be able to drink up to two glasses of beer, cider or wine with a meal at events held about three times a year.

The school's deputy head teacher, Ceri Stokes, said other schools had run events with "sociable drinking", and found it had been "educational", allowing students to come up with "tactics" on how to say no to drinking.

She said the purpose of the proposal was to "make it so they’re learning skills".

For some girls who had never been in that situation, she said the school, near Potters Bar, wanted to "give them little tools and tricks so they can prepare themselves".

However, Aideen Dunne, a public health consultant at Hertfordshire County Council, suggested the scheme was social rather than educational.

"This is not an evidence-based approach to harm reduction for young people," she said.

"Any intervention that seeks to normalise alcohol consumption among young people should not be viewed necessarily as in the students' best interests.

"We don’t necessarily need to equip young people with resilience and skills through giving them alcohol. We don’t give them drugs... we teach them on the harms," she added.

Welwyn-Hatfield councillors raised concerns about the proposal, with one saying it was "a shame" the school had not presented a proposed alcohol policy along with its application.

The school said it would have an alcohol policy in place if permission were granted, but councillors cited the current lack of one as a reason for refusing the application.

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