Hundreds of people have signed a petition to abolish the South West Herts Admissions Consortium in a bid to stop admissions tests and keep local schools for local children.

The petition, which has nearly 500 signatures, will be handed to Watford MP Richard Harrington.

The consortium, which is made up of seven secondary schools across Watford and Three Rivers, holds exams for pupils applying to the schools - instead of the schools setting individual tests.

The exams for entrants next year are being held this weekend.

Mother-of-two Carol Harris started the petition in a bid to remove "a test that puts young children under unnecessary pressure and is not consistent with other areas of Hertfordshire".

Carol, who lives in Cassiobury, said: "Children are usually tutored or sent to private school to ensure they get the best mark. This in turn pushes up the pass mark.

"I can’t think of one good reason why young children should be put under pressure of sitting an exam which decides their secondary school. I also don’t understand why within Hertfordshire there is a different admissions policy in different areas.

"I strongly believe that children should attend their local school and the school should be part of the community, this is not the case as the admission is not based on distance. Children who live outside our town and even county attend our local schools.

"I have started a petition to our local MP so he can see the feeling of the local community."

Accountant Carol, 39, has a seven-year-old and a five-year-old and said the family had considered moving to avoid putting their children through the exams.

She continued: "If we stay here they will probably end up sitting the test to be in with a chance.

"Every so often we say we should just move, but we really enjoy living here.

"I don’t understand why Watford is so different from other parts of Hertfordshire. We have family in St Albans and they don’t have to worry about it."

The secondary schools in the consortium include Bushey Meads, Queens’, Rickmansworth, St Clement Danes, Parmiter’s, Watford Grammar School for Boys, Watford Grammar School for Girls.

Bushey Meads said it was not a selective school and used the results of the test to make sure they took in equal numbers of each band of pupil.

The other schools either declined to comment or had not responded at the time of going to press.

The petition can be found here https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/abolish-the-south-west-herts-admissions-consortium