To hate fricking parent pay with an absolute passion !

[frumpet]

It is possibly just me , but my child has just left primary and i need to set up a new account at her new school and also set up an account for my son who is starting at the primary school , but i cannot see anyway of doing this . Am i stupid ?

I hate it! I found it so much easier writing a cheque and sticking it in the book bag. It's a more convenient system for school that's being dressed up as more convenient for me.

Doesn't the school have to set up the account? Or was dd's amd ds's school just being "kind" doing ours?

Ours was set up by the school too, they did it on the child's visit day at the end of last term as need the thumbprints to go with it.

I love it. Topped it up today for lunches ready for starting this week and so much better than primary. Plus it must be a nightmare admin wise at secondary schools, I know how bad it is at primary.

I also thought the school had to set them up. We got an activation code in the post last week from dd2s new school. The account was already there. We have another account for dd1 and I must admit I love it, even if I do forget to top up occasionally

We got a code too, and then I had to get another code to be able to link my children at two different schools to the same account. Are you sure you haven't got one somewhere in the mounds of paperwork?

I really agree with this comment. When you are cooking, all devices in the house are in use and your cheque book is right there, it is much easier to write a cheque when you remember it. Schools present it as easier to use parent pay, but I have found it the reverse. It is really troublesome. There is a principle here too, that schools take away our choice to use other means of payment. They say it is for efficiency, but what does this mean? A lady in the office losing her job? I am not convinced that it is more efficient anyway. There are often exceptions (a school performance with outside visitors for example). I think school managers enjoy compelling people to adopt a so-called modernization masquerading as an improvement. Why should our choice to use cash or cheques be taken from us?

I hate it too.

And I'd like to see what ds is spending the money on!

Not that we knew even when they were taking cash, so my comment doesn't make sense

I love it, I wish we could use it for school trips rather than just lunch money.

I haven't sent cash in since they lost half a weeks dinner money and I can never find the cheque book when I need it.

Our secondary school use Parentpay-they are a completely cashless school,which has stopped a lot of kids having their dinner money pinched!I quite like it-you can still pay by cheque but they take forever to bank it.
The only thing that does annoy me is that the minimum amount you can put on the kids lunch account is £20 each-which lasts my kids about 6 days.Can't afford to put £40 on per week, but would like the option to put less on so they can have school dinners once or twice a week.

You can see what the children are spending the money on - go to view menus and choices, and you should be able to see what they have bought. (and what else was on the menu that day, so you can see whether they made a healthy choice or not!)

I love Parent pay - it has made life so much easier, rather than having to find cash or my cheque book. And ours take months to bank cheques too,and have lost one, so I much prefer paying by parent pay.

At our school the minimum is £10 so a bit more flexibility and we can pay for trips, and if it is a big trip eg ski trip, we can pay month by month over the year to spread the cost.

I think it's brilliant!

At secondary school there's simply no time to go wandering all the way to the office with cheques, either for children or teachers.

It's no more difficult than paying for anything else online. Plus I can see exactly what DD is spending her lunch money on.

Perhaps you missed the info but I'm sure a quick call to the school will help you sort it out. I had to call them when I changed my email address because like you I couldn't figure out how. They were perfectly happy to help.

I'm sure rather help you with that than have to deal with your cheques!

I love it. Use it for school trips, dinner money. All children linked up.
So much better than cheques imo.

I really like it - don't worry op, you'll soon get the hang of it. Don't give up :-)

I love it.

At primary dd needed to take vouchers (school office sold books of these) or dinner money each day that she wanted a school dinner. She didn't always remember to take them, and sometimes lost the vouchers.

She's in year 7 now and her secondary school use parentpay. I find it easier, plus I can check up on her - we've had a few chats about her meal choices!
The only trouble is that I sometimes let it get too low, but that's my fault for not checking regularly.

God I much prefer it. Still plenty of work for the school administrators as far as I know.

This is an old thread so I'm sure the OP has found out how to open the 2 seperate accounts by now

DD1's school has something called Squid, which is just for lunches, but you can do an auto top up thing, so you never have to check it.

DD2's school has parentpay, and every time I go on it, to top up her lunch account, there will be some other item I have to pay for. I agree that it's useful to see what she's eating, though.

DS's school sends a termly bill for extras, including lunch. Much easier, but you do have to check it. I have been charged for instrument hire (wish it really was that cheap!) and for elocution lessons that he doesn't have.

I live in a remote area with crap broadband (as do most of the parents of kids at my sons' school) and have spent a good half hour, frequently, trying to pay on the appalling Parentpay site. It was faster to shove a tenner in an envelope. Way faster.

My kids' school insists you pay a minimum of £10 per child not per family - so with two kids there, at the start of some weeks I'd have to find at least £20 which I don't always have.

Since the crap Parentpay came in, my older son has agreed to have pack-ups and the younger prefers school dinners but rarely gets them.

There was at least one occasion recently where I paid at 8:30 AM (and could prove it via the receipt) and at mid-day my son was told the money still hadn't gone on so he couldn't eat.

Since Parentpay came in, my sons tell me that one brother is not allowed to buy something then pass it to the other, either.

I hate the fact private companies and individuals can make money out of the fact schools want this service. It should be taken from them, and given to local councils to operate, so someone isn't making money off the back of the fact our kids want school lunches, and schools don't want the hassle of administering that any more.

Why should our choice to use cash or cheques be taken from us?

We have Parentpay at ds's school but I only use it to pay for lunches. They are still happy for us to use other methods of payment. Last term I paid for class contributions with cash and some new sweatshirts by cheque no problem. Money is money!

Sorry pressed too soon.

Meant to say I'm thankful ds's school appears to be more sensible than some others by the looks of it.

My dds' school won't take cheques since they introduced ParentPay.

Not that it's used by the canteen - it's only used for trips, books, and the like that go through the office.

I would be unhappy with them taking away the dcs' experience of them handling their dinner money for the week - making first budgeting decisions, working out what to do if they forget their money, or lose it, or overspend too early in the week, etc.

I love parent pay, and we can see what dc spend the money on. Backforgood they still get to budget. I put £10 at a time and they know it has to last so many days. It was a pain finding cash for them all the time. Now I get a text saying" can you remember to put money on my thumb please." Or "thumb please"