West Lakes Academy in Egremont, Cumbria, provides education to children from 11 to 18 years old. As an academy, we are independently governed but state funded and free to all children. Like other schools, we are subject to normal OFSTED inspections and work with the Local Education Authority in relation to issues such as admissions.Our vision is to succeed in ‘Changing Lives through Learning' by providing the very best possible educational opportunities for young people in West Cumbria. We have extremely high hopes for all of our students and our highly skilled and enthusiastic members of staff encourage children to have high ambitions and to work hard to achieve these.The academy was last inspected by Ofsted in March 2017 and was judged ‘Outstanding' in all areas of the inspection. Previously it was judged ‘Good' in February 2013.Students and staff benefit from fantastic facilities, outstanding IT resources, a £300k engineering facility, performing and expressive arts suite and a brand new eco science lab in our brilliant £26m building. We are sponsored by two of the most important energy organisations in the UK and two of Cumbria's largest employers; The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd. They provide invaluable resources and industry support to our specialism in science. We also receive excellent higher education expertise from our education partner, the University of Central Lancashire.This year we celebrated outstanding Key Stage 5 results with a 100 per cent pass rate and an exceptional 38.2% of all entries being awarded the highest grades possible of A*/A. Our GCSE results were also our best ever with 64 per cent gaining five A* to C grades including English and maths.The hard work of our pupils and the dedication of our skilled members of staff enable us to provide students with the education they need for a successful and happy future.