Cashless Catering System

Saint John Henry Newman Catholic College operates a cashless catering system for all students to purchase their breakfast, break time snacks and lunch. Each new student will have their fingerprint registered. Parents will be able to pay online via a Parent Pay system. Parent Pay is a school online payment system that lets you make secure online payments by credit and debit card. You can also pay in cash at local Pay Point stores or pay into the credit machines located within school.

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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 petty cash in schools; i.e. loss, theft and bullying

• Healthy eating is encouraged

• Queuing times are reduced through increase speed of service

• Automatic free meal allocation with the student remaining anonymous

• Detailed reports to analyse all aspects of the use of the system

• A more efficient delivery of service helps the caterer to provide wholesome, healthy and enjoyable school meals at a low cost

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Biometrics & Security

Students, parents and staff can rest assured that the fingerprint images cannot be used by ANY other source for identification purposes. The system uses an image of the fingerprint to create a mathematical algorithm and then discards the fingerprint; only the numbers remain and these cannot be reinterpreted back into a fingerprint image. Fingerprinting is purely voluntary; however, if you DO NOT wish your child to be included in the biometric system, please inform the college in writing to: Mrs K Scott, Director of Support Services, at the address below, stating clearly the name.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• Why do you need to take my child’s fingerprint? – By taking an image of your child’s fingerprint we can turn this information into a digital signature. This unique image will then be used to replace their current swipe card.

• Can fingerprints be used by any other agency? – No, the software we use turns your child’s fingerprint into a mathematical algorithm. The image of the fingerprint is then discarded. The information that is stored cannot be used to recreate an image of the child’s fingerprint.

• How does it work? – When the student places their finger on the scanner, the software matches their finger print with the unique digital signature held in the database.

• 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 meals will be entered in to the system by the software daily and will only be accessible at lunchtime. Extra cash will need to be added for breakfast or break.

• What happens when my child leaves the College? – When a pupil leaves Newman RC College all data can be deleted very easily.

 

If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact the College.