Thousands of Sussex youngsters have been celebrating their excellent GCSE results.

Good luck to them and congratulations on their success, which tended to buck the national trend.

There has been a tendency over the past 15 years for exam results nationwide to improve annually, prompting critics to say they were becoming easier.

That has not happened in 2003. But in Brighton and Hove another more worrying trend has emerged.

While the high-flying schools continue to soar, with some students making staggering achievements, others are being left behind.

Serious questions need to be addressed at Comart and Falmer School, which lag well behind the national average.

While teachers at both schools are striving to provide the best all-round education for their pupils, there is an emerging feeling that children who are not academically strong are being forced to jump through the same hoops as their more exam-minded contemporaries.

It will be a brave authority that takes the first step towards addressing this issue but without fundamental changes in education, the chasm between the best and worst achievers will continue to grow.