A specialist engineering and digital technologies college in Swindon has been ordered to improve by Ofsted. 

UTC Swindon on Bristol Street was the latest educational establishment in the town to be visited by the education watchdog, and its result of 'requires improvement' was published recently. 

The school was rated 'good' for its personal development and sixth form provision, but quality of education, behaviour and attitudes and leadership and management all 'require improvement'. 

But inspectors highlighted that the college was doing some things right and recognised that staff shortages and a change of leadership had contributed to it repeating the same result it achieved in 2020. 

The Ofsted report said: "The school experienced some recent changes to leadership. This created a period of instability."

But it highlighted that "The trust has taken prompt action to resolve this. Staff are positive about these changes.

"For example, new leaders have put in place systems for assessing pupils. As a result, the school has a knowledge of pupil's starting points and progress through the curriculum."

It stated that the school's staff "didn't always identify the gaps pupils had in their learning," and "the disrupted implementation of a few key subjects prevents pupils from progressing well through the curriculum."

It also said that "many staff changes mean that some pupils do not have equitable experience of the curriculum. As a result, pupils do not achieve as well as they could."

The inspector also noticed a 'culture of non-attendance' and some behavioural issues among pupils but noted that the school was improving its management of these issues.

A spokesperson from Activate Learning Education Trust, which runs UTC Swindon, said: "Inspectors visited our school during a period when the improvements we are working on as part of our three-year plan have not yet been fully embedded.

"We are pleased that the inspectors agreed with our overall self-assessment of areas to focus on and we have made considerable progress in the areas highlighted in the report. 

"We are pleased also that inspectors recognised the good work the new senior leadership team is doing, including the appointment of a new Head of School and the addition of a new Deputy Head who joins us in September. 

"Inspectors praised several aspects of the school, including our Sixth Form provision, our support for SEND students, our personal development programme and our careers and destinations, which we will continue to strengthen. 

"Inspectors also recognised the impact of the staff shortages we have suffered this year. We are pleased to say that we have now successfully recruited a number of staff for September."