A STATE school in Rickmansworth has been given two years to address an admissions process which makes it "unreasonably difficult" for local children to secure a place there.

An official inquiry into the admission arrangements at Rickmansworth School by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator has found the process has been "sufficiently disadvantageous" to children for whom it is the nearest school.

In worst case scenarios, it has meant some parents in Mill End and Maple Cross have had to make do with a place for their child in a school ten miles away.

Rickmansworth School, which sets its own admissions agenda, has now been told it must to work alongside Hertfordshire County Council to find a more robust approach to resolving the situation.

In a report issued this week, the adjudicator June Brown said the school must come up with an arrangement which will serve the "interest of the local parents and children".

For full story and reaction to the decision, see Friday's printed version of the Watford Observer.