After the half term break, the College will be introducing a more convenient way to pay for school meals using a secure service called ParentPay. ParentPay will be going live at school on Tuesday 7th November 2023 and from this date onwards the Canteen will no longer be accepting cash payments. Your ParentPay account will be linked to each individual student. Students will be able to access money in their account in the Canteen using their thumbprint. This is a similar system to that used by many schools in our local area.
On Thurs 19th, Fri 20th and Mon 23rd October we will be collecting your child’s thumbprint – it is important that all students attend on these days.
Free School Meals
Students entitled to free school meals will have their account credited on a daily basis. Extra money can be added to the pupil’s account to purchase additional items over the value of the free school meal allowance, or to buy items at breaktime.
Making secure payments online using your credit or debit card
ParentPay offers you the freedom to make top-up payments to your child’s account whenever and wherever you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – safe in the knowledge that the technology used is of the highest internet security available. You will have a secure online account, activated using a unique username and password which we will send to you separately; you will be prompted to change these, and to keep them safe and secure. If you have more than one child at our school, or children at other ParentPay schools, you can create a single account login for all your children.
Making a top-up is straightforward and ParentPay holds a payment history for you to view at a later date; no card details are stored in any part of the system. Once you have activated your account you can make online payments straight away.
PayPoint (if you want to add cash but do not have a credit or debit card)
Parents who need to make top-up payments by cash may do so using the PayPoint network at local convenience stores. If you want to use the PayPoint system to make top-up payments to your child’s account you MUST notify us in school as soon as possible so that we can order you an individual PayPoint card. A plastic card will be issued to you to make cash payments for school meals at local PayPoint stores. Each payment card costs £3 and takes about two weeks to arrive – so please order these as soon as possible to make sure that your child has money available after the half term break.
The next step . . .
You will receive an individual letter on BLUE paper with your unique ParentPay Account activation details from Monday 16th October. This will be given to students in school to bring home. We also aim to have further support materials available to help you as you learn how to use the system. You will be encouraged to set up your account well before half term so that we can iron out any issues before Tuesday 7th November.
Finally, please note that if you have any issues with the ParentPay system you will need to contact ParentPay directly yourself. For further information and support please go to www.parentpay.com
