The latest school league tables make for disappointingly familiar reading: Bradford’s primary schools are getting better, but so are most other schools, meaning that the district has not improved its position in the ratings.

Schools doing better is, perhaps, more important than league table placings at any rate, but the figures – based on maths and English tests given to 10 and 11-year-olds last year – do show that Bradford has a lot of catching up to do.

It is heartening that now 75 per cent of children in Bradford are attaining the expected levels, compared to 71 per cent a year ago. But Bradford is still the worst performing local authority in Yorkshire, meaning there is much work to be done.

With a large number of children entering the school system with skills far below what they should have, perhaps it is right that more should be done to educate children before they even start their first day at school.

While most parents will accept that they have a responsibility to at least allow their children to properly develop in the pre-school years, it is not fair to put the entire onus on improving children’s pre-school learning on parents, guardians and carers because they simply do not have the necessary skills and knowledge to be teachers as well.

Coun Jeanette Sunderland’s call for more investment to be put into early-years teaching via parent-toddler groups and pre-school nurseries seems to be a sensible one. Although the Council’s finances are tightly constricted, the education of our children, whether before primary school, during, or after it, cannot be skimped on if Bradford is to be in any shape to compete with other districts in the future.