Lies, damned lies and education statistics: a reader points out that the Evening Post website carried two reports on consecutive days about last week's GCSE results.

On Thursday, we said that Bristol was still on the bottom rung of the national exam league, having risen from 149th to 143rd place, while the next day we said the performance by city 16-year-olds was among the most improved in the country.

Both reports are accurate. It is not even a question of spin. It's just that the tables can give out contradictory messages, depending how you read them.

For example, following the 2007 results, Henbury School received a letter of congratulation from the Government for consistent improvement over four years, only to later be castigated by Ministers along with many other city secondaries because fewer than 30 per cent of students had gained five good GCSEs including English and maths.

The key thing that parents reading the tables have to remember is that the figures must be regarded in context .

Bedminster Down head teacher Marius Frank explained: "What most Bristol schools are doing is showing significant and sustained added value. As a local authority, our students are performing well above the level expected of them. "

What he means by that is that in many areas students are starting secondary school at 11 with low levels of achievement so are not predicted to score highly at GCSE - yet many are now doing so.

A majority of schools have seen students exceed the highest targets set for them - putting them in the top 25 per cent in the country.

It is complicated, but from next year there will be fewer statistics to have to get your head round, following Schools Secretary Ed Balls's surprise decision to axe the National Curriculum tests for 14-year-olds in English, maths and science, otherwise known as Key Stage 3 Sats.

Bristol can claim some influence over this decision, as only a couple of weeks before teachers at Bristol Brunel Academy had told Mr Balls of their concerns at the " increasingly irrelevant" tests.

But the chaos and expense of this year's Sats, which led to the termination of a Government contract with ETS Europe, probably had something to do with it too.