These are the Yorkshire secondary schools that are the hardest to get a place at

In the region, sponsored academies in inner-city areas, traditional selective grammars and free schools were all overwhelmingly popular with parents.

Yorkshire’s two most popular secondaries are Dixons City Academy in Bradford, with a 35 per cent acceptance rate and 241 pupils who did not win a place for a September 2022 start, and Roundhay School in north Leeds, the comprehensive attended by prime minister Liz Truss, which had a 50 per cent success rate and 219 first-choice applicants rejected.

Halifax’s two remaining state grammar schools were also oversubscribed, with both having acceptance rates of just over half of applicants and each turning down over 100 children.

In Doncaster, free school XP was in demand, with only 46 places on offer, but 169 families turned down – a success rate of just 19 per cent.

North Yorkshire’s schools had relatively few children turned down for a place – perhaps indicative of its rural nature and larger catchment areas – and surprisingly, two of its selective grammars refused fewer than 20 applicants each; Ermysted’s in Skipton and Ripon Grammar.

Mercia School in Sheffield, which opened in 2018 to offer an academically rigorous curriculum and has plans for a ‘super sixth form’, was the city’s most popular, with a 57 per cent acceptance rate and 121 applicants refused.