Attendance

At Geoffrey Field Infant School we strive to develop an effective partnership between our staff and the families who attend our school so that pupils thrive during their time with us. Good attendance is essential to pupils’ attainment, safety, wellbeing and future life chances.  

Parents are informed of their responsibility to ensure that their child attends regularly in the Home School Agreement which is signed.  All children are expected to attend school every day and on time.  Parents have a legal obligation to ensure their child receives a full time education and parents should promote the importance of good attendance. 

At Geoffrey Field Infant School we define good attendance as 96% or greater (182.5 days out of the possible 190 days) and arriving by 8.45am each day. 

The school day starts at 8.45am for pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and finishes at 3.15pm.  Registers are taken by the class teachers at 8.55am in your child’s classroom. If your child arrives after 8.55am but before 9.15am they will receive a late mark (L - Late before register closed).  After 9.15am they will receive a late mark which represents a complete morning session missed (U - Late after the register closed). Our school day ends at 3.15pm. Gates close at 3.25pm. If you are stuck in traffic or going to be late for another reason please call the school office. 

Nursery pupils either attend a morning session or an afternoon session. The Nursery morning session is 8.30am to 11.30am and the Nursery afternoon session is 12.15pm to 3.15pm. 

When children are too ill to attend school, parents must contact the school office to provide a reason for the absence. Please telephone 0118 9375473 or email admin@geoffreyfieldinfant.reading.sch.uk. Parents are expected to contact school each day that their child is absent by 9.30am. Parents must give a full reason for the absence, ‘unwell’ or ‘ill’ does not provide enough detail. If your child is absent with an illness for a period of 3 days or more, school staff may request to see some medical evidence e.g. an appointment card or a prescription.  

For many illnesses it will still be possible for pupils to attend unless they are feeling too unwell for learning. Please use the link below to check for any necessary days off:

Please note that any requests for leave must be submitted to the school for consideration by the Head and Attendance Team. Leave will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances; holidays are not considered as exceptional circumstances. 

Parents or carers who take their children out of school during term time for 7.5 days or more without the school’s permission (unauthorised leave), will be issued with a fixed penalty notice by the Local Authority. The fine is currently £60 per child per parent, this amount increases to £120 per child per parent if not paid within 21 days.

Parents and carers must apply for ALL leave of absence on the Request for Leave of Absence form which must be submitted to the Head Teacher via the school office in the usual way. The fine is currently £60 per child per parent, this amount increases to £120 per child per parent if not paid within 21 days.  

If you need to book a medical appointment for your child, please can we ask that you try to get this appointment for out of school hours. If this is not possible, then an appointment near to the beginning or the end of the day would be better as it would be less disruptive to your child’s learning time. If your appointment is during the school day we ask that you please bring in an appointment card, letter or text message to the school office to confirm the reason for absence. We do appreciate that for some appointments it is not possible to specify a time/date preference. 

If your child’s attendance falls below 96% a referral may be made to the Attendance Support Worker. If your child’s attendance falls below 90% a referral is automatically made to our Attendance Support Worker who will make contact with you directly. 

Parents are expected to engage with the Attendance Team in order to remove any barriers to poor attendance and to avoid legal intervention.