Cashless Catering
What is a Cashless System?
At the heart of the cashless system there is computer controlled software that allows the system to recognise each individual student, hold individual cash balances, record cash spent and cash received record where money is spent, on what food, on any specific date and time of day.
How are students recognised by the system?
Each student is issued with their own 'swipe' card registered to the system, when used this will then enter them into the system program and identify their own catering account.
How is this then used to obtain a school meal?
The student simply swipes their card on a scanner at the point of sale; a display will show the server the student’s name, class and current cash balance held within the system. The selected food items will be entered into the system from an itemised keyboard while the amount spent and the new cash balance will show on the display.
If we pay for a set number of school meals, can it be spent in one day?
No, a daily spend limit of £10.00 will be set for all students and no food above that limit can be bought. On request, an individual pupil limit of your choice could also be set, to include a school dinner and break time snacks
What about students entitled to a 'free school meal'?
The system works exactly the same for all students whether they pay or have a free school meal. All students have their own account to use in exactly the same way.
The amount allocated for the free school meal will be entered into the system by the software daily and will be accessible from breakfast club through to lunch break.
The system will then allow on a daily basis the required cash amount for each individual student to be allotted to their current cash balance. However, any under spend or missed dinner will be identified by the system and will not be added to the next day’s balance.
Balances can be added by parents / carers on ParentPay to enable a greater daily spend on the school dinner than allocated by their free meal allowance. As this allowance can only be spent on a school dinner, extra cash added into the system can also be used for break time snacks.
Will students have problems in using the system?
Some students may find it difficult to control their accounts for the first couple of weeks, but because of a daily spend limit, most learn this important life skill very quickly and will enjoy being in control of their account.
Data Handling
Certain data will be held on the system to enable accurate operation. This will include your child’s name, tutor group, photo, account balance and meal entitlement. This data will be handled under the guidelines of the data protection act and only used by parties directly involved with the implementation of the system. If you have any concerns please contact the school.
Main Benefits
- Convenient way of paying for school meals. No more looking for change every morning
- Discourages the misuse of school dinner money through spending in shops outside of the school grounds.
- Alleviates many of the associated problems with the use of cash in schools. i.e.: Loss, theft and bullying.
- Specific food allergy ingredients can be barred automatically.
- Healthy eating is encouraged.
- Queueing times are reduced through increased speed of service.
- Automatic free meal allocation with the pupil remaining anonymous.
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