THE mother of a girl at the centre of sex abuse claims at a Hampshire special school says she hopes something positive can come out of mistakes made by an education watchdog.

Her comments came after Ofsted admitted failings in its dealings with Stanbridge Earls School.

At least one person has been sacked as a result of an internal inquiry into Ofsted’s own inspections at the £39,000-ayear school near Romsey.

The body has accepted all the findings fromthe reviewand has apologised to parents of pupils.

The inquiry reviewed the school’s inspections between 2011 and 2013, and concluded that three inspections were “problematic”.

Ofsted said they “failed to get underneath concerns at the school”.

It added that while the review had not identified widespread failings, it had identified “some weaknesses in Ofsted’s systems, structures, processes and practices which gave rise to the risk that safeguarding issues might not be fully addressed”.

Ofsted had previously classified Stanbridge Earls School as “outstanding”.

But this was followed by a Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disability Tribunal earlier this year, which 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.

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 announced it will close in December, when a new school will open on the site.

The girl’s mother told the Daily Echo: “Hopefully something positive will come out of this and even if we make children slightly safer it can only be a good thing.

“Ofsted have held their hands up and said ‘we have made mistakes’ and hopefully now the loopholes have closed and people will be more aware.”

Ofsted is planning staff training, a safeguarding group to monitor child protection issues, strengthening case management and has improved technology to give inspectors more “joined-up information” about schools they are inspecting.