Eight-year-old Cian Simmons upstaged David Cameron today when he cut the ribbon at his newly refurbished special school, with the Prime Minister joking: "They haven't given me the scissors because we don't want any more cuts."

Cameron was opening six new classrooms at Northern House School in Oxford, which caters for children aged five to 11 with behavioural difficulties, as he tried to escape the turmoil of the past week in Westminster.

The school has just successfully applied for academy status, which Cameron said would give its head teacher Ian Barker much greater freedom in deciding how it was run.

But he did not speak to reporters following calls from Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes for an investigation into whether Jeremy Hunt breached the ministerial code.

The school is the only one in the county which takes primary school-aged children with emotional and behavioural problems.

Barker said the new building replaced run-down temporary accommodation.

He added: "It's been terrific. Today was a wonderful boost for the school."