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"Pupils give the thumbs up to cashless school dinners"
30 September 2010

The Holgate School in Hucknall will be the first of a countywide roll-out where 1,200 students will need only their finger to pay for their school meals.

Instead of needing cash – or even cards - to pay for their school lunches and snacks, from Thursday, 30 September they will use a revolutionary system which captures coordinates from the fingertip, encrypting them into a code that identifies the child and accesses their online account.

When children get to the till, all they need to do is to place their finger on a reader. The cashier will enter their transaction into the till and instead of handing over cash, the relevant amount will be deducted from their account.

The introduction of this innovation at Holgate hails the roll-out of the scheme by Nottinghamshire County Council across nine other comprehensives and two primary schools before February next year. The County Council then plans to look at introducing the system to the rest of its 300 primary and secondary schools.

The County Council’s Cabinet Member for Personnel and Performance Councillor Andy Stewart said: “Apart from the obvious security benefits of pupils not having to carry cash, it’s a simple and discreet way of administering free school meals and parents can see what their child has been buying.

“And because parents can easily manage their child’s account online, it will save the school time and resources, removing much of the bureaucracy around administering cash payments and putting school services to better use.”

The Council has teamed up with sQuid, the electronic money operator, to bring in this scheme which is funded by the Department for Children Schools and Families along with individual schools.

Keith White, Holgate’s head teacher added: “As well as pupils being able to pay for meals and snacks using the system, we are looking at the possibility of extending the system to cover trip payments, doing away with the need for parents to write out separate cheques for various activities.”

 

View article on This is Nottingham  >>