A TAKEOVER of a Hampshire special school at the centre of sex abuse claims has collapsed.

Stanbridge Earls School near Romsey will close in December and was due to be taken over by More House School in Frensham, Surrey, which would have run the site as a “sister school”.

However More House School has pulled out of talks, it was revealed last night.

In an email to trustees and parents, Stanbridge Earls’ acting chairman of governors Jenny Ringo confirmed the blow.

She said: “A great deal of thought and hard work went into what was felt to be the most promising proposal for our school.

“It is with heartfelt regret that we now learn that this is not to be.”

She said that the trustees and head teacher would be working over the weekend on a contingency plan for the autumn term.

Barry Huggett, headmaster at More House School, confirmed discussions with Stanbridge Earls had ended, saying More House School had limited resources and that its foremost duty was to its own pupils.

He said More House had wanted to start a similar school on the site but had “reached a point where we realised that this could not be sustained”.

“We send the children and staff at Stanbridge all good wishes and thank them for their kindness and courtesy.”

In a letter to parents at the time of the closure announcement, head teacher Maggie McMurray had said the many difficulties the school had faced had led to a drop in numbers.

She said, as a result, the £39,000-a-year school was now in financial circumstances that could “only be said to add to our concerns”.

This follows a Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disability Tribunal earlier this year, which found that Stanbridge Earls 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.

As reported by the Daily Echo, 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, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

An Ofsted inspection prior to the tribunal classified the school as “outstanding”.

The watchdog has since made a number of emergency inspections and wants the school to produce an action plan for improvement.

Earlier this week, Ofsted told how an internal inquiry which reviewed its previous inspections at the school between 2011 and 2013 had concluded that three inspections were “problematic” and “failed to get underneath concerns at the school”.

At least one member of staff has been sacked as a result of the inquiry.

Hampshire police are currently examining whether “further criminal offences” have been committed against other youngsters who have attended the school.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We’re waiting to see the action plan from the school about the proposals it has received.”