ROMSEY’S MP has demanded a public inquiry into what happened at a troubled special school at the centre of sex abuse claims so that lessons can be learned.

Caroline Nokes, MP for Romsey and Southampton North, has welcomed Ofsted’s admission that failings were made in their dealings with Stanbridge Earls School in Romsey.

However ,she believes a full public inquiry must be carried out once the police investigation is over, to prevent anything similar happening again in the future.

The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) is calling for legislation to introduce a law that would make failure to report suspected or known child abuse, in places such as schools and churches, a criminal offence.

It comes after the school watchdog apologised to parents and pupils at the £39,000-a-year school for failing to “get underneath concerns at the school” during three separate inspections.

Ofsted had previously classified the school as “outstanding”.

However, a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal earlier this year found the school had discriminated against a girl and that staff members failed to tell the youngster’s parents that she had complained of pain in an intimate part of her body.

The tribunal found that a vulnerable youngster had suffered “appalling abuse” at the hands of another student, while the school was slammed by panel members for being “completely inadequate” when it came to protecting the youngster.

Stanbridge Earls has announced that it will close in December and a new school will open on the site.