03 June 2005
The Middlesbrough academy placed in special measures by education inspectors last week has pledged to fight its way back to success.
The management board of the Unity City Academy said it was already working on many of the areas of weakness identified by Ofsted inspectors.
'We believe that the additional support and monitoring which will now be available to the academy can only help in further strengthening our action plan for dealing with both the immediate issues and our longer-term development,' said Joe McCarthy, chair of the Unity Trust Board.
The academy opened in September 2002, replacing two schools serving a deprived area of east Middlesbrough.
But during a March 2005 visit, Ofsted inspectors uncovered problems ranging from weak leadership and poor financial management to high staff absence rates and disruptive pupil behaviour.
'Standards are too low and improvement is too slow,' the May 27 report said. 'The progress that pupils make in their learning is poor. Attendance continues to be very low and the high absence rate is an impediment to raising standards.'
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