Girls born between April and December 2011 are eligible to apply for admission to nursery class at Loreto House for the 2016-17 session, the school has clarified even as the official notice mentioning a lower age bracket remains on the board.

The queue for admission forms on the first day of distribution stretched from the Middleton Row campus to Peter Cat, near the Park Street intersection. Many of those in the queue were parents of children born before January 2012, the cut-off mentioned in the notice. These children had missed out last year because they were then younger than the stipulated age range of April 2010 to March 2011.

"Children born between April and December 2011 can also apply and they will be treated on a par with the rest as far as the application process is concerned," G. Basu, the vice-principal of Loreto House, told Metro.

On why the notice responsible for the confusion hadn't been revised, the vice-principal said: "We are telling parents (of girls born between April and December 2011) that they can apply whenever they call our office. We have asked the guards at the gate to do the same if anyone asks."

Metro had highlighted on August 19 the predicament of parents whose children were in an age bracket left out by Loreto House for the second consecutive year.

The 173-year-old school had put up a notice earlier this month, stating that only girls born between January 1 and December 31, 2012, would be eligible to apply for admission in nursery for the 2016-17 session. Last year, the school had taken girls born between April 2010 and March 2011.

Since Thursday, the school has received calls from scores of anxious parents wanting to know whether their children could apply for nursery admission. They were assured that children born between April and December 2011 wouldn't be denied the chance to compete for the 80 seats at stake.

Many parents lined up for forms still unsure about whether their daughters would be considered for admission at all because the notice on the board didn't match what they had been told over the phone. "I queued up for more than two hours not knowing whether I would get a form because the notice mentions something else," said a father who came all the way from Patuli, off the Bypass.

Some parents turned up without calling the school for a clarification. "My daughter was born in 2011 and I was sceptical about getting an admission form, but I was still willing to take a chance. The person at the counter issued a form without asking me anything," said a 34-year-old advertising professional who was in the queue.

Loreto House's nursery section is equivalent to Upper Nursery or Lower KG elsewhere. Between nursery and Class I, the Middleton Row institute has a lone KG Class.

In contrast, La Martiniere for Girls, Modern High School for Girls and several other reputable schools have three classes before Class I and hence admit students at a younger age than Loreto House.

This is why many parents whose first choice is Loreto House are willing to even wait a year to put their daughters there. Forms will be distributed for nursery admission at Loreto one more time for two hours on Monday.