Several individual Bradford schools have enjoyed commendable success in the past year, according to national GCSE figures announced today. Feversham College rightly deserves the special mention it received from School Standards Minister Steven Twigg. It is a fine achievement to be named as the school which has produced the best "value-added" results in the country.

Congratulations too to Dixons City Technology College which Mr Twigg praised as being among the highest-achieving in the country, and to Bradford Cathedral Community College and Immanuel CE Community College - both of which have been struggling lately - for improving their performance thanks to the commitment of staff, students and parents.

Given these successes, it is very disappointing at a time when GCSE figures are said to be showing the fastest improvements in schools in the poorest parts of England that Bradford has slipped eight places down the league table. To have dropped to tenth from the bottom out of 150 is by any standards a poor show.

Although the "improvement rate" in Bradford for pupils gaining five or more A-C grades at GCSE is reported by Education Bradford to be 5.5 per cent compared with 3.7 per cent nationally over the last four years, other authorities at the lower end of the table are clearly making even greater improvements.

A bright spot is that truancy generally is down (although ten of Bradford's 28 secondary schools are in the country's worst 200). Let's hope that this, coupled with even greater efforts by schools and Education Bradford, helps to ensure that when next year's GCSE league table is announced Bradford has started its climb back. Another fall must lead to some very tough questions being asked.