Cumbria's only UTC has been told it must improve by government inspectors.

The Energy Coast UTC at Lillyhall was inspected by Ofsted last month for the first time since it opened in September 2014.

Inspectors said the school must improve the effectiveness of its leadership and management, the quality of its teaching, learning and assessment, personal development, behaviour and welfare, pupil outcomes and 16 to 19 study programmes.

Cherry Tingle took over as principal in September and inspectors noted that staff, pupils and parents felt she had transformed the college and created a good foundation from which to improve.

Her arrival followed a turbulent year as previous principal Gary Jones’ departure was followed by two interim appointments.

Ms Tingle said: “We welcome the findings of the Ofsted report, which acknowledges we are already making improvements very quickly.

“There are many things in the report to be proud of, including good outcomes in engineering, science and English and that we provide a safe, positive learning environment.

“I would like to thank our committed team of education professionals and industry partners who continue to work extremely hard to improve the education and career outcomes of our students.”

In the report, teaching was said to be “not effective” in some subjects, with pupils’ progress variable as a result, but this was improving quickly.

Understanding of pupils’ starting points was said to be not clear enough because a good system to establish them was not in place. This made it difficult to measure pupils’ progress.

Opportunities for sixth form students to take part in work experience and develop employability skills were described as improving but still underdeveloped.

Inspectors noted some pupils did not attend enough and that their attention wandered when teaching was not good.

Some teachers were said to not do enough to help pupils who joined the college in year 10 to catch up. Others were said to not have high enough expectations of what pupils could achieve.

However, pupils’ achievement and all other aspects of the college were said to be improving.

Welfare, personal development and safeguarding were also described as strong.

Inspectors said: “The principal has wasted no time in improving all aspects of the college quickly. The impact of her work can be seen in improving teaching, pupils’ achievement and attendance.”