Nine pupils per place in London's top primaries

Newton Farm in Harrow had 9.4 applications for each of its 30 reception class places last year - only 11 per cent of families who made it one of their choices got an offer.

Today the Evening Standard reveals the 50 most popular primaries, both faith and non-denominational, in the capital. Our research shows the extent of the pressure on leading schools.

Non-denominational ones are even more popular than faith schools, perhaps because most families who do not worship regularly are put off by the restrictive admissions criteria operated by Anglican, Catholic and Muslim governing bodies.

Tory leader David Cameron, who is bidding to get his daughter into St Mary Abbots, a popular Anglican primary in Kensington, has backed parents who pretend to be practising Christians to get places at church schools.

The tables are based on applications to all London's primary schools for entry either last September or this month.

Boroughs operate a series of different systems for applying to primary schools. Some insist parents list the schools they are applying for in order of preference while others ask for parents to apply to a fixed number of schools without expressing preferences.

Non-denominational Newton Farm had the highest number of applications per place. It won an Evening Standard School Award for academic excellence in 2006. Although not all its 11-year-old pupils achieved the standard expected of their age in English and maths last year, the school was judged outstanding in its most recent inspection by education watchdog Ofsted.

Headteacher Rekha Bhakoo said: "People do all sorts of things to try to get into the school, such as renting properties and then moving out of the area, so we are vigilant in terms of making sure children fill the criteria."

Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said the pressure on places showed that despite the investment of billions in state education under Labour, most families still lacked access to a good local school.

Referring to the announcement by Schools Secretary Ed Balls that cookery lessons should be compulsory for pupils, she said: "Let's get our priorities straight - fat kids aren't great, but fat kids with no schools are even worse."

The tables highlight the overwhelming popularity of small primaries among parents. All but five of the top 25 non-denominationals, and four of the faith schools, admit a maximum of just 30 children in their reception years - an indication that pressure from ministers on successful schools to expand has had little effect.

Only 11 per cent of parental appeals against rejections by their chosen primary schools were successful last year. Jack Rabinowicz, a lawyer with solicitors Teacher Stern Selby, said: "In order to satisfy an appeal, you have to show that in allocating a place the local authority has acted in some unusual or bizarre way, which means any appeals at the reception stage are almost impossible to win." The second most over-subscribed primary was Warrender in Hillingdon. In 2005 Ofsted said it had "a long history of attaining good results in Year 6 tests. The most popular faith school in London was Hampden Gurney in Westminster. Two Muslim primaries made the top 25: Islamia in Brent, founded by Yusuf Islam, and Orchard in Lambeth, which was independent until 2006.