AN emergency Ofsted inspection has found that safeguarding concerns remain at a troubled Hampshire special school.

Although inspectors recognised improvement at Stanbridge Earls School from the last inspection and said pupils were safer than they had been on previous inspections, it highlighted a number of areas where the school was still failing.

The school, near Romsey, is at the centre of sex abuse allegations and has announced it is to close.

Ofsted has already ordered two previously emergency inspections.

The latest report referred to an incident in which pupils took off their clothes on a school trip.

It said that though the headteacher had been “robust” in dealing with the situation, this was “serious and demonstrates that the school cannot yet be considered a safe institution”.

As reported previously, there were claims made to Ofsted that three male teenagers rock climbed naked on a half-term trip allegedly watched by two teachers.

The report said on a recent school trip children were allowed to remove their clothing and that it was already apparent that staff had failed to intervene and that one member of staff had taken photographs of the children.

It said that the leader of the group, a teacher from Stanbridge Earls, failed to take appropriate action like notifying staff at the school when he became aware of the incident and staff failed to immediately report it on their return, despite having had a safeguarding workshop.

It found the school was failing to meet the national minimum standard in child protection, health and wellbeing, leadership and management, staff supervision, training and support, and placement planning and review.

The report said the appointment of an interim headteacher Maggie McMurray and the decision that the school will close and be taken over had meant significant progress had been made.

It highlighted how an increase in staff had meant children were now more closely supervised and there had ben improvement in oversight and management of known protection child concerns.

It said although some pupil placement plans and risk assessments had improved the school still suffered from a “legacy of inadequate record keeping, risk assessments and Pupil Placement Plans”.It said: “Children are now safer within the school than when Ofsted inspected in January and in April 2013.

“However, events between inspections demonstrate that inherent weaknesses remain in how the school promotes the safety and welfare of all pupils.”

This comes after a special educational needs and disability tribunal earlier this year which 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 “unsystematic, unprofessional, ad hoc and completely inadequate” when it came to protecting the youngster.

Hampshire Police has set up Operation Flamborough to probe allegations made by two former pupils from Stanbridge Earls.

Police said they want to find out whether any “further criminal offences” have been committed against the known victims or other children attending the school.

As a result of that, it referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which has confirmed it has started a supervised investigation into complaints made to Hampshire Police concerning the force's investigation into an allegation of a serious sexual assault at Stanbridge Earls School in 2011.

Previous head teacher Peter Trythall stood down in April and the school has said it will be taken over by another school, More House School, in Frensham, Surrey, in December after a drop in pupil numbers led to financial concerns.