PARENTS  are being given the to find out a wealth of information about schools in their area through a new web service.

Ed Rushton and Dominic Blackburn, have collaborated with the UK’s leading online directory 192.com to create FindASchool.

User of the service can find out information such as exam results, class sizes, Ofsted scores and admission criteria.

Mr Blackburn said: “A recent survey by OnePoll [marketing research company] found that 66 per cent of parents find the UK’s admissions system unnecessarily confusing and 57 per cent say that the whole process of finding a school for their child is more stressful than moving home. This is where FindASchool comes in. We have designed this free service to help parents research the schools in their local area. Even if you have left it late and are only just starting the process, FindASchool is a great place to start, and will give you a good overview of the schools in your area and help you understand your chances of getting a place at these schools.”

FindASchool’s data shows there are over 100 primary schools where you would have needed to live within 300 meters of the school to get a place last year.

“It’s not just living too far from the school that sees parents missing out on a place - the complexity of the admissions system can also cause problems, “Mr Rushton said.

“We believe we are the first organisation to review the admission arrangements for all schools in the country. We found a bewildering array of different approaches to allocating places at oversubscribed schools. These range from the very simple, through to the incomprehensibly complex. If a school needs more than a page to explain how its places are going to be allocated something has clearly gone wrong.”

Parents have until January 15 to submit their primary school applications.

Head of parnerships at 192.com is Cirencester man Perry Jones.

Visit www.192.com/schools for more information on FindASchool.