It is certainly good news that, as the league tables released today show, Bradford has notched up its best-ever showing in GCSE results.

The district's secondary schools are showing a distinct improvement in this area, which is obviously an extremely welcome state of affairs.

Bradford's schooling system has had a chequered history in recent years, from the appalling condition it was in which prompted the tendering out of the contract to private companies, to the criticisms levelled at Education Bradford in more recent times.

This change in fortunes, although perhaps rather slight when seen from the outside, is a much-needed step in the right direction.

There is still, however, a huge amount of work to do and this is no time for anyone involved in the education of children in Bradford to become complacent.

This improvement must be built upon to ensure subsequent leaps up the education league tables in terms of GCSE performance.

But the situation with the poor state of the primary school network is still very much a cause for major concern.

Any good work achieved at GCSE level will be rapidly undermined if the quality of primary education is not tackled and improved at very short order, so while some small celebrations should be allowed for with this current news, getting on with the job at hand with regards the early learning years must be a priority.