We use a cashless system for the catering service at Bingley Grammar School. Our aim is to continue to provide and improve on the quality of the school meal service in school, following the new School Food Regulations and with the support of our catering company, P&A Food Management Services Ltd.
From September 2015 access to the system will be by a swipe card system. Each student and staff member receives their own unique card, which displays their name and photograph. Their card account needs to be credited with money and can then be used to pay for food and drink or to check the balance at any time. Cash is not accepted at the food counter till points, and all new students will be given training on how to use the system.
Advantages of cashless catering include:
- Speed up service at meal times, reduce queuing times
- Removal of Free School Meal stigma as the source of funding is concealed
- Parents able to monitor what is being eaten and that money is being spent appropriately
- Ability for parents to make on-line payments, removing the need for cash in school
- Specific food allergy ingredients can be barred automatically
- Ability to develop a reward system to encourage healthy eating
Adding Money onto the Account:
For your convenience and to assist us in our administration of the service and prevent the need for cash in school, we have two preferred methods of payment:
- on-line via a web based payment system (Parent Pay – login details will be provided to parents on the transition evening)
- by cheque made out to ‘P&A Food Management Services Ltd’ (our catering company). Cheques should be handed directly to the Restaurant Manager. Please write the full name of the Student and Form group as reference on the back of the cheque and place in an envelope.
Another advantage of paying for your child’s food by Parent Pay or cheque is that the money can only be used to buy food and drink in school.
Cash Payments
However, should you wish your child to continue to bring ‘dinner money’ to school, the facility for accepting cash payments for the day or a number of days is still available. However, all cash will have to be entered into the system by using the automatic cash terminals (known as Revaluation stations) and cannot be used to buy food directly at the dinner counters.
The revaluation stations are programmed to accept £20 £10 £5 Notes £2 - £1 - 50p - 20p - 10p coins. Any amount of money can be paid into the student account held within the system. Money spent on food will be taken out of the system and a student can always check by using the revaluation terminal to see how much they have left.
Free School Meals
Students entitled to free school meals will have the amount allocated for the free school meal credited to their account in the system on a daily basis (this amount is currently £2.30).
Information for Parents/Carers
The system is also able to provide you with a report detailing each item of food served, and each credit made to the system, for any time period and show a current balance. This is available online through registering with the Parent Pay system. You can access this system even if you do not wish to make online payments.
There is a daily ‘spend limit’ programmed into the system of £5. This can be increased or decreased for an individual pupil by making a written request to the school Finance Office.
