People looking for teaching jobs may be used to moving to hubs like London, but new research has shown parents are willing to relocate so their children can get a place at a good school.

The report from the Sutton Trust found that a third of parents have moved to locations they believe are home to successful schools, while 18 per cent had moved to the catchment area of a specific school.

A small minority (two per cent) even admitted to buying a second home to use that address to qualify their children in certain schools.

Other tricks are also being used to cheat the system, with parents using relatives' addresses and many families attending church services specifically to meet selection criteria.

The study called Parent Power? found that middle-class parents were more likely to resort to these tactics than working class and the lowest income parents.  

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: "This research suggests that those with money actively choose to live near good schools, employ tutors and ensure their children have extra lessons and enrichment activities that are often too expensive for other families to afford.

"This provides a significant advantage in school choice and in developing the cultural capital that is so important to social mobility and later success."

He believes education is more comprehensive than solely what happens in the classroom and it is essential to provide a level playing field in school choice.

One of the Parent Power? authors professor Becky Francis said the greater purchasing power of some parents is undermining the innate equality in the education system and this can be detrimental to society.

If you are a teacher or a trainee looking for a teaching job, have you seen any evidence of this parental purchasing power? Is it right? Are parents simply doing their best for their children? Should more be done to narrow the gaps between the lowest and highest achieving schools?

Tell us your views.