A special needs school in Abingdon that had to contend with more than 12 months of upheaval during major rebuilding work has earned high praise from school inspectors for its continued improvement.

An Ofsted (Office of Standards in Education) inspection team visited the Kingfisher School in Radley Road and found a consistently "high quality of teaching and learning particularly in the early years".

The inspectors' report praised the very good relationship between staff and pupils and the "very high standard" of integration of pupils into mainstream classes. Staff and governors were commended for the very significant progress that the school had made since its last inspection five years ago.

But the inspectors want to see improvements in three areas -- information communication technology needs more development, more work needs to be done on foreign languages and integration opportunities should be extended to include secondary age pupils.

Headteacher Ann O'Meara said: "Staff and governors are delighted with the excellent report. It confirms that Kingfisher is a good school that is well led and managed.

"This report is a major boost as the school has just take possession of its new building.

"It cost £1.5m and offers excellent specialist facilities for a range of pupils with special needs living in the Abingdon and Didcot areas."

Kingfisher is a mixed community special school for pupils aged two to 13 with complex and severe learning difficulties. There are 74 pupils.

A few have moderate learning difficulties, but the majority have severe problems and a significant number have complex learning difficulties.

The refurbished school has five new classrooms, a second large hall and special rooms for science, art and design technology and food techology. There have been extensive adaptations and improvements.

Mrs O'Meara said: "The previous buildings scattered everywhere were totally unsuitable.

"Now we are together and it makes life so much better for both staff and pupils.

"For nearly a year we had to leave Radley Road and work at Blacknall Road, the old Tesdale school premises, so you can image how stressful it was for us all, yet we still gained an excellent report from inspectors."

Previously the school was spread across four sites: Radley Road, Blacknall Road and two classes at Drayton and Kennington primary schools. Three classes are still based at St Swithuns primary school, Kennington -- a nursery class, one for pupils aged five to seven and another for children aged seven to 11.

Following assessment, pre-school chilren are placed either in the integrated nursery at St Swithuns or the asssessment nursery at Kingfisher.