A PIONEERING city academy school has received a scathing report from Government inspectors.

Ofsted said the Unity City Academy (UCA), in Middlesbrough, needed to be placed in special measures as it was failing to give an acceptable standard of education.

Leadership, financial management, standards of teaching and learning, attendance, punctuality and behaviour were all sub-standard.

The UCA said a new management team was now tackling the issues identified.

Chief executive Mike Griffiths last night called on staff and pupils to rally round and get the school heading in the right direction.

He said: "The most important thing to say is the academy recognises the issues in the report. We are working on action plans and we have 40 days to give them to Ofsted.

"The financial situation has been resolved, so we are confident we can get high-quality teachers in place and deliver the service the students deserve.

"The message we are giving to staff and students is that when we are given a challenge we must rise to it - we will come out of special measures quicker by working strongly together as a team."

In September 2002, Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the UCA, which was formed from two low-achieving schools in the town.

Lead inspector Jane Joyner's report stated: "The challenge of uniting the pupils from two schools, delay in moving to a new building and persistent difficulties in recruiting sufficient staff have resulted in managers spending considerable amounts of time and energy dealing with day-to-day issues."

A third of the teachers are newly-qualified, or unqualified graduate trainees, with it suffering from a high staff absence rate.

The report also said that on any given day up to as many as a third of the staff failed to turn up for work.

Members of the NASUWT teachers' union at the troubled school are currently being balloted for strike action following a dispute over new contracts and working conditions.

Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, said: "It is evident from the report that teachers have been striving to do their best in extremely difficult conditions.