An "overwhelming" majority of parents are satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of their children's teachers, a new survey has found.

Commissioned by NASUWT, the poll noted that 87 per cent of mums and dads are confident of the quality of teaching their youngsters receive.

More than nine out of ten parents (95 per cent) said that they believe it is vital to their children's education that teachers are qualified.

When it came to choosing a school for their children to attend, the number one priority informing their decision is location. This was true for 67 per cent of respondents.

One of the most interesting findings coming out of the report produced by NASUWT is the lack of importance of the league table position of a prospective school.

Only 29 per cent of parents checked to see where a potential school was in a league table.

Commenting on the findings, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said that it was clear from the findings of the study that the majority of parents do not agree with the coalition government on many key educational issues.

"It remains the case that for the majority of parents the locality of a school is a key factor, supporting the NASUWT’s long-argued view that what every parent wants is access to a good local school," he elaborated.

"It is clear that punitive ranking of schools in performance league tables is not something on which the majority of parents rely and therefore schools, parents and children are subjected to this negative annual ritual unnecessarily."

Mr Keates added that the fact that many mums and dads are of the opinion that professional qualifications are vital for education is a "damning indictment" of the government's decision to remove the requirement that all schools employ qualified teachers.