Sir.–Congratulations to all those students and their teachers on the GCSE results published in Monday’s paper (January 28).

These passes are not easily gained but rather are the result of sustained periods of hard work by students and teachers alike, often in challenging circumstances.

I cannot be the only one reading them though who finds it puzzling that two schools listed – The Vyne Community School and Everest Community Academy – have experienced markedly different fortunes this time around.

They serve the same part of our town, yet The Vyne has improved significantly while Everest finds itself in the bottom five schools of the county as a whole.

How can this be?

The Vyne continues to be maintained by our local authority, happy to be part of the county community, taking advice and assistance wherever and whenever necessary from the resources available to all county schools.

Everest, meanwhile, has opted out of local authority control and is now run by the Academies Enterprise Trust – not based in Basingstoke, not even in Hampshire.

The Labour Party believes that education is a birthright and that every child should have the opportunity of a first-class education, and our aim is for all schools in our borough to be recognised as institutions of excellence.

This vision cannot be achieved by schools ”going it alone”, as demonstrated all too clearly by the performance of Everest, but rather by schools feeling empowered to work together – pooling resources where necessary, to bring about sustained improvement for all learners, setting them up to continue as adults to learn successfully throughout life.

Last summer’s results serve as a timely reminder that collaboration in education is vital, and that the academy programme being promoted by this Government is flawed.

–Councillor David Eyre, Brighton Hill South, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council