The quality of education in Bradford schools might indeed be rising, as an Education Bradford spokesman today claimed in response to publication of last year's key stage three SATs, but they are not rising anything like fast enough.

Not only were eight of the district's 29 secondary schools ranked among the 200 worst in the country but even the excellent performance by some other establishments could not prevent the district's schools as a whole from coming four-fifths of the way down the national LEA league table (although the slight consolation is that the LEA was not down there at the bottom with Islington).

It is deeply disappointing that Bradford's worst-performing school, Belle Vue Boys', was unable to keep out of the bottom ten in the whole country - an appalling position for what was once a much-respected name in the world of education. Although the head teacher said there has been a "significant improvement", particularly in maths, the value-added score remained below average at 98.3 (the average is 100).

However, several other schools are able to give themselves a well-deserved pat on the back for achieving improvements in their value-added score, which measures how pupils have improved since key stage two. The girls of Feversham College in Undercliffe deserve particularly high praise for achieving their best-ever value-added score of 102.2 and tying with Dixons City Technology College as one of the most-improved schools in the district.

If only more Bradford schools could follow their example the district's education system as a whole could in a year or two be celebrating a steady climb up the ratings away from the also-rans.