How do you pay for school dinners?

[BubblyAll]

I work in a primary school and, to be honest, school dinners cause a huge amount of work and upset! Our school allows parents to book meals on the day and our cook is going hairless, not to mention the inevitable errors that occur which the school has to pay for.

How does your child's school deal with school dinners: can you pay daily, or does it have to be weekly, half-termly or termly? Do you have to choose meals in advance, or does your child choose on the day?

You have no idea how much any good ideas would be appreciated, so thank you in advance!

[zummurzet]

I love my kids' lunch system.

Menu is online, accessed through a website. I can choose meals for them up to 2 weeks in advance, or children choose each day, electronically, on a computer in the classroom as part of registration. You can have a packed lunch any day, just don't book a school meal. Meals are cooked each day from the computerised list. I then get a monthly email telling me what each child has chosen that month, on which days, and pay automatically by direct debit.

Genius.

[sunshinecity17]

Primary-use parentpay and can choose which days you would like.You an 'opt in' for an extra day on the day, but can't opt out without a week's notice

Secondary-pay on parentpay and it is charged to students account by fingerprint,

[Galena]

Pay online with parent pay. As long as you have credit in your account, you decide in the morning whether they are packed lunch or dinner (great for those mornings when your in-date bread is mouldy! ) There are 3 choices, of which one is veggie, and the children select at registration which they want.

Seems to work.

[TSSDNCOP]

Our school has school meal only for every child.

We pay online at the start of each term.

[Schmedz]

School dinners compulsory at our school and are paid up front at the beginning of term along with the fees!

[HaplessHousewife]

Oh and they can choose between meat, veggie, pasta, jacket potato or packed lunch.

[HaplessHousewife]

We top up an online account and choose day by day, although I think you can take in the cash on the day. The children choose what they want in the morning on a whiteboard and are then given a wristband depending on their choice so they can't change their mind when they get there .

It's a very big school though so I think it works due to the numbers involved.

[Clutterbugsmum]

Ours has a three week rolling menu apart from Thursday. Thursday's the school cook cooks meals from different countries from around the world.

[tumbletumble]

They choose between meat and veggie on the day.

[tumbletumble]

At my DC's primary school we pay half a term in advance. You can choose to have a mixture of school meals and packed lunches but you have to stick to the same days each week. Seems to work well.

[Bumpinthenight]

Pay and order on a Monday for the week ahead. 2 options - snack or meal.

One meal choice per day (meat or veggie so technically two!)

Can't remember what the snacks are but it is generally a roll or beans on toast.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

No ballache here from the parental point of view either, I'm very happy with choose on the day, I see we are very lucky to be able to do this compared to a lot of schools. I can't see any possible downside to it from the parental point of view, apart from possible menu planning issues for evening meals if they change their mind at the last minute. However I sit down with the DCs every Sunday night, look at the menu (3 week rolling for us too), they choose what they're going to have on which day, we write it on our meal planner and they generally stick to that. Lunchbox contents are planned the same way (I have one DC who mostly has school lunches and one who mostly has packed lunches) it gets stuck on the fridge, job done. I love the flexibility and it's even easier now we've got online payments.

[SueDunome]

We get an order form on a monthly basis which we get a maximum of three school days to return.
We have to order in advance for the whole of the following month. There is no option to choose specific days / part weeks. Either you order school lunches and have them all month, or you provide packed lunches.
There is no menu sent out with the order form.
There is only one meat choice and one vegetarian choice, e.g. pepperoni pizza or cheese and tomato pizza.
The meals are not cooked on the school premises.

[DontCallMeBaby]

Rocky, no ballache here from the parental point of view. It's gone wrong precisely twice in nearly six years, both due to DD being a dingbat. Once she failed to notice she had a packed lunch, ordered a school dinner (wasteful) and once she failed to notice she DIDN'T have a packed lunch therefore didn't order a school dinner (bit more complicated, not least cos she then ordered a dinner I could have told her she wouldn't like).

I'm a governor and it seems to work fine from the school's POV, as far as I know. Online payment is definitely good (cash used to go missing, and even if it doesn't it's an overhead for the school to manage).

[MrsRuffdiamond]

We also have a 3 week rolling menu.

You can do anything you wish with regard to choosing hot dinners or packed lunches on a day to day basis.

The only demand is that you pay by cheque or cash at the beginning of the week for the number of school lunches you want that week. You don't have to specify which days.

The school is insistent on payment on a Monday, though. We are texted regularly to remind us!

[PassTheSherry]

We have the options of paying cash or cheque in advance. It can be weekly, monthly, or per Half or Full Term.

The children can change between school dinners/sandwiches as long as the school is informed the week before - but I think the school prefers people not to chop and change too much, so I tell my kids that whichever option they choose they have to stick with for at least half a term.

The food is cooked on the premises, and they have a selection of meat, vegetarian, and halal. There are over 300 pupils.

[AuditAngel]

We have a 3 week rolling menu. Have to choose half a term at a time (before the end of previous term) either full time school dinners, part time (2days per week, I think Wednesday and Friday) or packed lunch.

Pay half term in advance either cash or cheque, or online using SCO pay. Also use SCO pay for trips and swimming lessons etc,

[careeristbitchnigel]

Mind you all schools had proper dining rooms and cooks then too i guess

[careeristbitchnigel]

What a kerfuffle.

I don't remember this great drama over school meals in the 80s, there were 2 choices for hot dinners, you picked as you queued and if you needed something "funny" your mum made you a packed lunch or you went home. Kids took in their dinner money every day and it seemed to work fine

How has it got so complicated ?

[rockybalboa]

Booking on the day sounds like an absolute ball ache for the school and for parents. We have to fill in a form every half term with what days they want school dinners in a week and that pattern is then fixed for the whole half term. Payment is cheque or cash. I would much prefer an online payment system.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Ours have to stick to either school dinners or packed lunch for a week at a time.

School dinners must be paid for in advance and this should be done online. School do accept cash but not cheques any more. You can lay online right up to the day that your dc will be having lunch so I have no idea how that can help the kitchen staff to plan in advance.

We have a 4 weekly menu set by the local council which changes at Easter and October half term.

I'm not fussed on the dinners, but our ds's love them so they have them for a treat for the last week of each half term!

[KiaOraOAotearoa]

We have a 4 week rolling menu. Both meat and veggie options, one pudding choice. No squash, only water or milk.
You must book a week in advance.
Pay online.

It is a godsend!

Your poor cook OP! Can't you all sit down and decide on a rolling menu?

[StampyIsMyBoyfriend]

Cash on the day, I hate it. 5yr olds should not be responsible for their own dinner money :-(

[TheReluctantCountess]

We pay online on a website called feeding hungry minds, run by ISS.

[noramum]

Invoice comes at the beginning of a new half term, you either pay the full amount of weekly. Changes from packed lunch to school dinners or vice versa needs to be given with a week's notice.

No changing and swapping during the week allowed.

It works fairly well, I think ratio is 60:40 for school dinners, it may change as we are an Infant only school.

We can pay by cheque or ParentMail which most parents do as it is more convenient.