The pressure to find places in the most popular schools has seen another sharp increase in the number of appeals over admissions decisions.

The figures, covering the school year 1998-1999, show a 15% increase in secondary school appeals - up to 53,700 - and over 4% increase in primary appeals to 32,200.

This is the fifth year in a row in which admissions disputes have increased, as more parents seek to overturn rulings that have prevented their children gaining places in the schools of their choice.

Factors on admissions

Having a brother or sister at the school Distance from the school Ease of access by public transport Medical or social grounds Parental preference Attending a 'feeder' primary school Maximum infant class sizes

Performance tables have helped to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of local schools, and competition to gain places in high achieving schools can be fierce.

Where there are more applications than places, schools can use a range of factors to accept or reject pupils - such as how close they live to the school and whether they have brothers or sisters at the school.

Such decisions can then be challenged by parents - who might claim that the distance should be considered in terms of travel time rather than physical distance or some other individual factor that the parents feel has been overlooked.

Appeals tribunals cannot overturn decisions which would mean primary schools breaking maximum class sizes - which could account for the fall in successful primary appeals.

But in secondary school appeals, there was an increase to 12,600 in cases where parents successfully overturned decisions.

House prices

The scramble for places in the most desirable state schools has seen parents making great (and not always honest) efforts to improve their chances of entrance.

House prices in the vicinity of popular schools have been pushed up by families buying into the area - and there have been accounts of families renting accommodation for a few months to gain the correct address.

And some over-subscribed schools now have to carry out checks to make sure that parents have not given false addresses or relatives' addresses to improve their chances of admission.

There have been cases after last year's round of admissions, which saw parents setting up their own schools, when they refused to accept the places allocated to their children.

There are no longer formal "catchment areas" with set boundaries - and depending on the places available each year schools might have to decide which individual streets will qualify for admission.

For the most popular schools, such as a primary school with only a few places free after siblings have been allocated places, this can mean admitting children only from one side of a street or from houses within a certain range of door numbers.

The government says that its new appeals procedure, which will come into force from this autumn, will help to make appeals a simpler and fairer process.