I nearly missed the closing date for school entry forms!

[Libra]

Turn up at playgroup this afternoon to find that tomorrow morning is the closing date for school entry forms for next August around here! The school secretary had rung the playgroup and was on stand by until I had run there to pick the damn form up. Now have to fill it in and find DS2's birth certificate before tomorrow morning!
The reason I did not know, of course, is that the announcement was made at playgroup last week, when I was at a conference and DH was on playgroup duty. Presumably he didn't think these announcements referred to him (sigh).
Still having hysterics at the thought of missing this since there appear to be a lot of four year-olds in the village this year and there are rumours that the school will be too full for once!

Why did you need the birth certificate? The deadline here was 20th October 2006 - we will find out any day where we've been placed, but I'm sure we didn't have to supply a birth certificate.
Don't panic - it doesn't matter whether you send the form in on the first day or the last day, they have to be treated withequal priority. Good luck - I hope you get the place you want.

somersetmum is right - it's not '1st come 1st served' as long as you get it in on time.
Can you do it online? I've never heard of anyone having to produce a birth certificate - our LEA uses medical records when sending out application forms.

Hi. Sorry - spent all last night looking for the birth certificate.
We are in Scotland (Aberdeenshire) and I assure you that here we DO need the birth certificate. You have to take it to the school and show it to them. Daft, I know, because they all knew when I was pregnant, etc, because DS1 was at the school at that time.
We also don't put down a list of choices or anything like that. It's just turn up at the local village school, show certificate, fill in forms, the end. Unless there are too many children in the year. Don't know what happens then - the village has not yet been in that situation. I presume you Could ask to go to a school in another village, but that would be an enormous amount of hassle and travelling!

Libra - I THINK that provided the school is not over the maximum capacity it can hold, that the school has to still take your child (if you are within catchment area of course!) With the 2007 intake, our school should be over the number of pupils that can be taught by 2 teachers - and we have been told that a 3rd teacher will be provided. (quite where they are going to put everyone is another story!)

Thanks Scotlou.
Our school lost one of its teachers two years ago because the numbers dropped (now all the classes are composite ones) so I don't know whether they will be forced to re-visit their teacher numbers because of this one large year. Oddly enough, next year's class looks as though it will only contain about 7 children...
Have filled in forms anyway, so hopefully all will be fine.
It was just such a shock finding out that I had missed the announcement and that I had nearly missed the deadline.
As the school secretary said: 'But we put a notice up in the butcher's window'! Well of course, I was just checking the school's website, where there was NO mention of the enrolment being this week. Of course I should have known to check the butcher's window...

Good grief!
Luckily you found out in time.
Apparently our LEA uses medical records rather than birth certificate because it also gives an indication of the child's address.