It’s one of the biggest decisions faced by parents every year - which school they should choose for their children.

The Chester Chronicle today gives families a helping hand by revealing the most sought-after schools in Cheshire.

We’ve combed through last year’s admissions data to tell you how popular your local schools are.

It’s one of the biggest decisions faced by parents every year - which school they should choose for their children.

Our tables and interactive search tool tell you how many places were up for grabs at each school for 2016/17, compared to the number of applications and how many first preference choices secured a place.

The deadline for applications for secondary schools is fast looming. Parents with children in year six are being urged not to miss the October 31 deadline. The deadline is the same for each council in England.

Related: Race for a primary school place

Applications received after that date will be considered ‘late applications’ and could significantly impact your choice of school.

These figures come from Freedom of Information requests to local councils who collect and process school place applications.

Related: Race for a secondary school place

Councils were asked to provide the number of places each school had, the number of applications they had received for each school, ideally broken down by preference, and then the number of offers made, again ideally broken down by preference.

Not all councils provided all the information requested, but all have provided information on the number of applications for each school.

Christleton High School was the most oversubscribed secondary school in Cheshire

The applications process generally works by asking parents to list a number of schools in order of preference on their form, before the schools and local authority generally rank the applications in order of how well they fit the over-subscription criteria, e.g. siblings, religion, distance.

Information on the number of applications and the ratio of applications to places gives an overall idea of how popular a school is with parents.

However, it is also helpful to know how successful different preferences of applications were. Some schools attract a high number of applications but they are not everyone’s first choice, meaning those who really want a place are often successful, while others are very oversubscribed with first preferences.

The proportion of first preference applications that were successful is an indicator of the chances of getting a places at a school - a school where only a third of first preference get a place is likely to be one where only those who closely fit the criteria stand a chance of a spot.

Different councils use the preference system in different ways. Some offer six preferences, while others may ask parents for their top three choices.

Some rank all the children who have expressed a preference on the over-subscription criteria, regardless of what order they put the choices in, and then offer places based on preference, moving children up the list as others are matched to places elsewhere, while others look at preferences first before applying the criteria as a tiebreaker.