How does your DC's Junior school collect dinner money?

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Ay mine, it's £1.70 paid in cash on the day and hande over as they collect thier lumch. This means children from 7yo have to look after the money until lunchtime, including taking it out in the playground with them if they're on the second sitting.

DS1 (and many others) often lose their money. The school office will replace it so they can have lunch and them I get a curt note about making sure my child always has sufficient dinner money. or a packed lunch as the office cannot keep lending money and I must reimbirse them asap...

They know the children lose it because the actually joke about hoe rich anyone who could be bother to open the drain in the playground would be.

I have a number of issues with this

-It's bad enough paying for lunch once, without doing it twice
-I am worried about where the money goes, i.e. is it "lost" or stolen, although DS is admanat he's lost it
-I always put it in a sealed envelope with his name on (in line with the schools requests) so if it is lost, it should turn up. Last time apparently he had it in his shirt pocket in the playground and it "must have fallen out when he was running"
-Finding the cash daily is a pin and there must be a better way to do this.

What does your school do?

ours buy dinner tickets that are available form the canteen first thing in the morning and in the playground at breaktime.
They have a space for their name and class to be written on at the bottom.
They also have to choose their lunches at morning register and are given a red, blue or green yellow band depending on what they are having (this ensures that the children get the meal they want and if they are last in lunch only having the option of whats left.)
It also saves on cooking too much of one thing and not enough of something else.

Out of interest those who pay termly, how much is that if you don't mind me asking?

our dinners are £1.85 without a drink £2.10 with. it might be an idea to pay monthly instead of getting near payday and not having enough to cover dinners

We buy dinner tickets at our school, available each day from the office or you can buy a book of 5 if you prefer. Parents often pop in with their kids to buy them so they can't lose their money.

Infants have to hand them to their teacher to look after until lunchtime, juniors are trusted to look after their own. They hand them to the dinner lady when they get their meal.