These are the last GCSE and A-level league tables which will be published under the tenure of Education Bradford’s control of the district’s schooling.

The private company, an arm of Serco, completes its ten-year contract this year, after being put in charge when Bradford Council’s running of education was deemed to have failed.

The mission of Education Bradford was to bring the standard of learning in the district up to the national average.

Although there have been some small improvements, that target has not been reached.

While schools have posted much better results in many cases, other areas deemed to be failing seem to have pulled themselves further up the tables, moving the goalposts of the national average and causing Bradford to slip further behind.

That is why Serco has not been granted a further period of running schools in Bradford, and why they will now fall back under Council control.

Now we can only hope that the Council will make a better job of running schools than they did before.

They must recognise the mistakes they made that forced the Government to step in and give the education contract to Serco in the first place, and ensure that they do not happen again.