In many quarters it would have been classed as unauthorised absence. But I am unrepentant about taking a break in termtime last week.

I needed to catch up with all the jobs at home I was not able to get done when everyone else was on their long summer holidays.

I could not take time off then, as there was too much to be done reporting on Sats and GCSE results and preparations for the opening of five new academies in Bristol.

Anyway, I had the last laugh, as the sun shone considerably more during my week than it had done in the whole of August. (And I didn't do housework all the time!).

But it was back this week to more statistics, with the publication today of the national league tables for local authorities. These took some of the gloss off the feelgood factor in the summer, when Bristol's results were well up on last year's. For they revealed that other councils had raised their game too, meaning that while the city is no longer at the bottom of the pile, it hasn't climbed very far.

The Government's provisional figures show that 34.9 per cent of students at Bristol's schools achieved five or more good GCSEs including English and maths. The proportion gaining at least five A*-C grades in any subjects was 53.8.

The council points out that this represents a big improvement - 19 percentage points better than five years ago on the second measure, which was the original benchmark.

Of course, though, parents will look at the raw data and think: only a third of Bristol's kids are getting these basic qualifications. That's not very good. Schools in other areas have better scores - maybe I should apply to one of those. Some families will vote with their wallets (or, increasingly, the grandparents' savings) and opt for private schools.

The most recent figures suggest that 21 per cent of the city's secondary school population attends fee-paying schools and another 21 per cent goes to North Somerset, South Gloucestershire or Bath & North East Somerset.

Many of these are those who have achieved good results at primary level, meaning that Bristol's secondary schools take in a higher proportion of less academically successful children than elsewhere.

The statistics show that Bristol's schools are helping many of these youngsters make excellent progress compared with what might have been expected of them based on their prior attainment. Most have seen results that put them in the top 25 per cent in the country.

But this can be a difficult message for schools to get across to parents, many of whom are currently weighing up the options before next week's October 24 deadline for applying for a school place for September 2009.

And, as I mentioned before, it's an ever changing picture, with the development of so academies, trust schools and other new models of schooling.

It's making me tired thinking about it ... maybe I need another holiday!