Cashless Catering goes live after the October break

Students will be enrolled on the first day of the new term – Wednesday 4th November 2009 – by scanning their middle fingertip.  The optical scanner works in the same way as a digital camera; random points of the fingertip are broken down into data points and are converted to what is essentially a string of random numbers, No-one has access to this information and the stored data points can never be viewed as anything other than a string of numbers and letters, so please be assured this software is very secure. 

Where parents have advised that they wish their child to be excluded from this initiative they will not, of course, have their fingertip scanned. 

The following day, Thursday 5th November, students will be able to pre-load their own account, if they bring cash, by using the wall mounted coin and note loaders.  Each child can then load their account and monitor their own balances; these units are programmed to accept 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins as well as £5, £10 and £20 notes only.  You can also send in a cheque which should be made payable to Pabulum Ltd and given to the catering manager; please ensure that you put the name of the child and their tutor group on the reverse of all cheques.  We would ask that where possible the amount covers a minimum of two week’s worth of purchases for your child.  We hope to soon be able to offer parents the opportunity to make online payments to school.

Please remember that your child will still need to purchase lunch as normal on Thursday 5th November as well as pre-loading their account for the new system.

Friday 6th November sees the system go live and Vericool staff will be there to offer support throughout the introduction of the new system. From that date cash will no longer be accepted at the food counter till points.

If you do have any query in the meantime, please telephone the school on 01793 612727; if the school is closed please leave a message and someone will get back to you.