Eight regional dailies are publishing statistics on the best schools on their patch ahead of Friday’s nationwide deadline for school applications.

The titles, all owned by Trinity Mirror, are releasing the guides which contain data obtained via Freedom of Information requests, and includes statistics on how hard it is to get into particular schools.

The Birmingham Mail, Liverpool Echo, Huddersfield Examiner, Coventry Telegraph, The Newcastle Chronicle, Teesside Evening Gazette and the South Wales Echo will all publish double-page spreads of the secondary school and primary school data.

The Manchester Evening News has published an eight page supplement today for secondary school data and will be running another for primary schools tomorrow.

The guide in the Birmingham Mail

The ‘Race for a school place’ guides were compiled by the group’s data unit ahead of the October 31 deadline.  It looked at the overall number of application preferences for each school and the ratio of these applications to available places to assess how popular a school is with parents, based on last year’s applications.

Where available, the guides also include information on what proportion of first preference applications got places, a measure of potentially how difficult a school is to get in to.

Claire Miller, senior data journalist, said: “This analysis uses exclusive data revealed through Freedom of Information requests to give the most comprehensive view possible on how popular local schools were when it came to applying for this year’s places.

“Choosing a school is a major decision for parents, and with the application process for next year’s places under way, hopefully this information will further aid parents in making decisions about where is best for their child and where they have the best chance of getting a place.”