Queenswood, a girls’ private school near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, has been refused permission to serve alcohol to sixth-formers at social events, the BBC has reported.

The school’s deputy head teacher Ceri Stokes said other schools had run events with “sociable drinking”, and claimed it would be educational for its 16 to 18-year-olds to drink moderately at occasional evening social events.

The school’s head of catering Stephanie Hall told the council’s alcohol and regulated entertainment subcommittee that pupils with 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. This is legal in the company of an adult.

However, Aideen Dunne, a public health consultant at Hertfordshire County Council, said the proposal risked “normalising” drinking and there was no educational basis for it.

Dunne 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.”

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council rejected the application, stating that the lack of a proposed alcohol policy at the school as one of the reasons for its decision.