Parents say they do not just look at league tables when choosing a school for their children.

They have welcomed the addition of a new measure of school performance to the league tables.

But they say there are many more important factors.

For parent Ros Adler, whose son Henry is changing schools this year, league tables were low on her list of priorities.

"They might have been one more criterion but they would never have been for me the main factor," she said.

"I am interested in who is heading a school so going to open evenings and getting an impression of the head teacher is very important."

We don't take them as gospel, but we do need them Nicky Arresti, parent

"I am interested in attitudes to bullying and whether the school is focused on just two or three universities at the expense of others."

Henry hopes to go to a secondary school with some of his friends when he leaves his primary school.

"I prefer it to be mixed, I don't like it if there is bullying and I like good sports facilities," he said.

The new "value added" measures in this year's league tables have been seen as a way of making a fairer assessment of how much children improved in a particular school.

Critics of the tables had complained they were too bland and did not take into account the level children were at when they joined a school.

Mike Tomlinson says league tables are improving

The former Chief Inspector of Schools, Mike Tomlinson, says the new measures are a big improvement.

"I have advocated the introduction of value-added measures. I am pleased to see what we have got today, as the beginning of a journey," she said.

"These data are better than what we had before and I am sure that the concerns that head teachers have with today's data will be addressed and the tables gradually improved."

Mr Tomlinson says parents use the tables in a sensible way.

"They use them as an introductory piece of information but the key test is to visit the school and see what the relationships are like in a school, the ethos, what the school feels like.

See for yourself

Margaret Morrisey, the leader of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, says the new measures improve the tables but they remain far from perfect.

"Parents find the tables interesting and use them and there is no doubt that putting value-added indicators on is better, but they still don't tell the whole story about what a school is like," she said.

"The most important thing is to go into a school and see how you are treated and it gives you an idea of how your children would be treated.

Mrs Morrissey said the school's ethos was important to parents as was a feeling that their child would be safe and well cared for.

"They ask themselves, 'Is my child going to be happy here? Are people going to be interested in them regardless of how they might affect the league tables?'" she said.

Parent Nicky Arresti has three children who attended The Latymer School in north London, a selective school, which topped the league tables for the new value-added measures.

She thinks league tables are a useful starting point for parents.

"We don't take them as gospel, but we do need them," she said.

"We used them as a guideline for deciding which schools to look at.

"But the deciding factor for us was visiting the school and seeing the relationship between the children and the teachers, the ethos of the school and the feeling there."