Problems with school office and handling of dinner money payments - how would you approach this?

[katalex]

I've had a few problems with dinner money payments since the new office lady started. Dd has school dinners 2 days a week and I send the money in an envelope which she gives to her teacher. If you need change they are supposed to send it home with the child or hand it to the parents after school. A few weeks ago, I sent in £2 both days expecting 15p change per day. I didn't receive this. The following week I only had a £10 note so I went into the office as I didn't feel confident that I would receive my change and I needed it for the next day. I was told that I was 15p in credit. I didn't want to argue about the other 15p so I didn't say anything and just asked to pay for 3 dinners. The woman in the office seemed quite harrassed so I asked if she could take the money for the 3 dinners and send the change home. She wrote this down and I left. Two days later I still hadn't got my change so I went back into the office to ask for it. She said that she didn't know I wanted the change so I confirmed that I wanted to pay for 3 dinners and could she send the change home with dd. That afternoon I received an envelope with some sums on the front which I didn't understand and more change than I expected. I assumed that she'd checked the system again and found that I was more in credit than I expected so left it at that. It turns out that I should have queried it because I received a note on Friday stating that I owe them money, despite having sent the right money each day for the last 2 weeks.

I know she's new and I don't want to make a big deal out if this but I do want to say something so that these problems don't continue into next term. We don't get receipts so I have no way to prove how much and when I have paid. I was thinking of sending an email in to the head teacher to ask her to remind the office staff that change should be given back to the parents/kids. I also wanted to ask if it is possible to be notified earlier about missed payments rather than sending a note home weeks later (at the moment, I feel that I have to keep a diary of payments so if it does happen again I know for sure what I've paid and when). Do you think this is reasonable? I'd be a nervous wreck speaking to the woman in the office and I would be far too polite to get my point across. I don't want to create any bad feeling as I'm sure I will have to speak to her many times in the future as dd in only in reception.

What a mess. Can't you just send the right money?
Sorry to sound terse but in the old days kids came with the right money, the teacher collected it, and that was the end of it. It took a few minutes, Once you start mucking around with change and receipts it starts to take time which is better spent doing other things.

Cheque??(that doesnt look like ive spelt it right)

I'd suggest sending the correct change in future. We have a change tin we put money in so we always have some one hand. That way nobody has to keep track of anything.

Does your school "do" its own school dinners? At our school they have a 3rd party catering company and everything is passed on to them, so the office staff have limited ability to know if your in credit/missed payments anyway.

agree you should prioritise sending the right money
can you pay in advance for the term?
collect 5p coins so you can always make the £1.85?

On the whole the only reason I get money out is to pay for school dinners so I rarely have any change.

redskyatnight - they do have a third party catering company.

I think a cheque might be the best way forward. Then all I'll have to worry about is keeping track of being in credit if they announce a school trip and dd has a packed lunch instead.

Thanks

This is quite worrying because all schools should now be operating systems which meet the FMSiS standard. Part of that standard is how cash is handled in schools as there is the obvious potential for it to go wrong and also to be open to abuse.

That this school appears to have such a sloppy system would to me suggest that you do need to instigate the formal complaint system because somebody needs to get a grip of this before it becomes a disaster. I would try talking to the head teacher and just saying you are concerned by the apparent problems that the office is having in handling this cash. I would hope that the headteacher would take it very seriously but if not then you should put it in writing to the headteacher as a formal complaint

It can't be that hard to give the right money
just go to the bank and change a tenner for change every so often

I only ever hand money over to the school office in the form of a cheque since there was a mix-up over breakfast club money.

Each half-term I count up how many days DD will need dinners for and then send in a cheque for that amount. If a trip is announced after that and she needs a packed lunch I note it on the calendar and deduct it from the next half-term's dinner money.

My own problem these days is that banks give out cheque books with fewer cheques so I go through them in no time. My bank now let me have two at a time because I was lucky enough to be served by a mum who writes cheques for her own DCs' school things.

At our school they use parentpay which means this cannot happen - you can only pay for meals online and in advance. No money can be sent in with children.

Suggest this to the school!