FirstDay
FirstDay support
Last updated 15 September 2026.
FirstDay takes the emails and letters a school sends and turns them into one list of what is due, one supply list, and one form tracker, so nothing arrives as a surprise on the morning it is due.
Why a date is sitting in "Check these"
Every date FirstDay reads out of a letter carries its own confidence, and anything it was not sure of is not scheduled. It goes to the "Check these" block at the top of Coming up instead, showing the date as it was read and the letter it came from. Confirm it and FirstDay starts watching it; tap "Not a thing" and it stops.
This is the whole design rather than a hedge. A date the app guessed and then reminded you about is worse than no reminder at all, because after one wrong buzz you stop believing the ones that were right.
Nothing is quietly dropped, either. A date FirstDay could not read confidently is still written down, still shown, and still attributed to the letter it came from, because a deadline that vanished would be the same failure as one that was invented.
Why a reminder did not arrive
Three things stop a reminder, and they are all deliberate:
- The date is still unconfirmed. An unconfirmed deadline is never emailed and never buzzes your phone. Both channels read the same rule, so they cannot disagree with each other.
- Phone reminders have not been turned on. FirstDay asks the first time you confirm a date, and there is a "Turn on phone reminders" link on the Account screen if you said no.
- The thing is already done. Marking a slip sent back, or marking an event done, cancels its notification.
Reminders go out at the hour you pick on Account, in your own timezone, wherever you are. Forms and payments use the notice period you choose; events keep their own shorter notice, because being somewhere takes less arranging than getting a signature back to school.
Why a deadline is against the wrong child, or against none
You do not pick a child before adding a letter. A newsletter routinely covers a whole year group and names children inside itself, so FirstDay assigns each item as it reads it. Anything it cannot place lands unassigned rather than against whoever happened to be selected, because a deadline filed against the wrong child is worse than one filed against none. Names are only used to work out which child a letter is about.
Forms have two steps
A form is not done when it is signed. Signing and returning happen on different days and the second is the one that counts, so a form tracks both: mark it signed, then mark it sent back.
What FirstDay does not do
- It does not replace reading the letter. It reads dates out of school mail and it can misread one.
- It never contacts a school and holds no school portal login.
- Information reaches it two ways only: what you paste in, and what you photograph.
Subscription
The Account screen shows whether your subscription is active. Billing runs through your Apple ID, so managing or cancelling happens on your device at Settings › your name › Subscriptions. Cancelling there stops the renewal and leaves the current period running to its end. We cannot cancel it for you and cannot see your payment details.
Apple is the merchant of record, so refunds are requested from Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Your records, and your children's
Signing in is a code sent to your email address; there is no password. FirstDay stores the letters you add, the dates, supplies and form statuses read out of them, and each child by the name you gave, with no date of birth, no photograph and no school login.
You can delete your account from the Account screen. That erases your children's details, every letter you have added and every deadline being tracked, permanently. The full policy is at carrierpress.com/firstday/privacy, and it names the services involved, including the model that reads a document you add.
Contact
One person reads that, so a reply may take a few days.
FirstDay is published by Jeffrey L Carrier.