A MAJOR review of events at a Hampshire school hit by sex abuse claims has found that it failed to protect some vulnerable young women.

The Serious Case Review into events at Stanbridge Earls School near Romsey highlighted a number of failings by the school.

The report found that the school was "not sufficiently alert to its safeguarding responsibilities" there were "basic errors" by the school.

These included: An overall lack of alertness to safeguarding issues and incidents with safeguarding implications A failure to keep parents properly informed, perhaps arising from a failure to grasp the seriousness of matters A failure to make and keep other agencies aware of cause for concern Failure to recognise that sexual activity between children might raise safeguarding concerns, or concerns that crimes may have been committed Confusing about confidentiality which was used to excuse failure to take essential action Weaknesses in basic administration.

The report said: "The crux of these events is that some vulnerable girls were not adequately protected.

"The school that should have been preventing that maltreatment, and promoting those girls' best interests, failed to do those things sufficiently thoroughly.

"Staff and trustees generally were not sufficiently alert to the needs of vulnerable girls, when that was an apparent area of risk."

As previously reported, the school found itself criticised for excluding a pupil who had made a rape claim, and was subjected to multiple inspections.

The £39,000-a-year independent school, which had boarding and day pupils aged from ten to 19, closed last year after failing to get enough children to sign up for classes for the new school year, making it financially unviable.

A Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal in January 2013 found that 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.

An Ofsted inspection the next month also uncovered serious care failings and an action plan drawn up by the school was rejected by the Department for Education.

Prosecutors later ruled that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges for claims of sexual abuse of pupils.

They considered the original allegation made by the parents of a pupil and separate claims from four other pupils against ten individual students.

They also investigated allegations of perverting the course of justice against two teachers.

Maggie Blyth, Independent Chair of the Hampshire Safeguarding Children Board, said the review had stressed the need for schools to put in place and use safeguarding policy and practice in line with national guidance.

"The report demonstrates that these duties can be more complex in schools for children with a range of special needs, particularly residential schools, and that Safeguarding Boards need to forge relationships with schools in the independent sector,” she said.

"The review considered the response of the school and local and national agencies to allegations arising from sexual activity between children at the school noting that the allegations have not led to any criminal charges.

"The review states that the response by external statutory agencies was generally thorough, timely and appropriate; local agencies, particularly the Hampshire Constabulary, and Hampshire County Council Children’s Services, worked well in their efforts to deal with these complex events, with the reviewer commenting that ‘overall the operation was well thought through and delivered successfully’."

Acknowledging the concerns of families, Ms Blyth added: “I want to reassure all those affected by the events at Stanbridge Earls that the differing concerns about what may have happened to some children, and the consequences for all the children at the school, have been taken extremely seriously.

"The independent reviewer has been meticulous in taking account of the varying experiences of the families and in scrutinising the actions taken by the school and the agencies that were involved both at a local and national level.”