IT IS one of the most important decisions a parent will ever make – where to send their child to school.

And today the Birmingham Mail can reveal the odds of them winning a place at the city’s primary schools.

Tables showing the most popular Birmingham and Solihull Primary Schools are included below.

A baby boom in recent years means reception class places are in more demand than ever before – with up to seven children chasing every one.

An expansion programme is currently underway to create 6,000 extra primary places to cope with the climbing birth rate.

Some 24 city schools expanded to allow for extra pupils in 2011, and a further nine are being expanded this year in time for the September 2012 intake.

Under the admissions process in Birmingham, families have to put down three preferences in a bid to get their child into a school of their choice.

The most oversubscribed Birmingham primary for the 2011/12 school year was Thornton School in Ward End – with seven children vying for each available place.

The former junior school, which expanded in 2009 to allow one infant class, acts as an overspill school for nearby Sladefield Infant School.

Thornton head teacher Linda Webster said the high numbers were down to working with Sladefield.

She said: “Like the rest of Birmingham, we have had to increase our numbers to cope with the rising rolls, and we work very well with Sladefield Infants.