CASHLESS CATERING SYSTEM AT CAFÉ MAY

At Mayfield School, we operate a cashless system for the catering service.

What is a Cashless System?

The system is computer controlled by I.M.P.A.C.T – Software. This allows the system to recognise each individual student, hold individual cash balances, record cash spent and received, record where money is spent, on what food, on any specific date and the time of day.

How does a student obtain a school meal?

The student will touch a finger image scanner in front of the till point. A display will show the kitchen assistant the student’s name, class and current cash balance held within the system. The selected food items will be entered into the system from the itemised keyboard by the kitchen assistant and the amount spent and the new cash balance will show on the display.

The student’s initial details will be transferred from our main computer system, however, we will need to create a unique number for each child, and this will be by using a finger to create a biometric number.

I would like to reassure you that no recognisable fingerprint information will be kept in school.

How is money entered into the system?

• By cheque, which should be made payable to Mayfield School, and received 24 hours in advance, to cover any period, i.e. a term, half term, month, week or a fixed monetary amount of your choice. A post box to receive payments will be located in Student Reception. Please note to allow us to identify cheques, you must write your child’s full name on the back of the cheque. If the payment is to be shared between two or more children, you must identify all of them by name.

• By cash, note, coin into an automatic cash machine located in Café May which will accept £20 - £10 – £5 – £1 – 50p – 20p – 10p coins. (1p – 2p & 5p coins cannot be used).

To put money onto an account using the machine, students should put their finger onto the reader mounted on the cash machine to enter the system which will then display the student’s name and current cash balance. Notes or coins should then be inserted into the slot. Each incremental cash balance will show on the display. Once the money has been loaded, the student should press the red button to finish.

We have limited the daily spend for each student to £5.00 per day.

Free School Meal Allowance

It is the parent’s / carer’s responsibility to renew their child’s Free School Meal Allowance with their local education authority. The parent / carer must then inform the school of this information immediately upon receipt, as your child will not receive a free school meal if their allowance has expired and not been renewed.

The system works exactly the same for students with a Free School Meal Allowance. The amount currently allocated for academic year 2007/08 is £2.00 for the free school meal allowance which is subject to change for the academic year 2008/09. The allowance will be entered into the system by the school, allowing a daily amount to be used at lunch only; this will show on the child’s account from 12.05 p.m. However, any under-spend or missed dinner will be identified by the system and will not be added to the next day’s balance.

The student can also add extra cash to his or her balance in the same way as already mentioned to enable a greater daily spend which can be used at break or lunch.

Students will be shown how to operate the system upon their first day at Mayfield School.

We will be able to provide you with a report detailing each item of food served, each credit made to the system, for any period and show current balance should you make this request.