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!

[Wolfcub]

Through parent pay and two weeks notice is required to.switch from dinners to pack up and vice versa

[ilovepowerhoop]

the kids have a dinner card that can be topped up at the machines in school or they can be managed online at home (SQuid cards). With dd I have an auto top up set up so that when her balance drops below £5 it tops up £15 that is paid by my debit card (she has a lot of school dinners!). With ds I check his balance online and top up by debit card if needed (he only goes for a few school dinners)

They are able to choose each day whether they have a school dinner/packed lunch and indicate in the morning which they are having (although they dont have to specify the actual meal they are having).

[ilovepowerhoop]

www.squidcard.com/ - this is the one our school uses

[ContentedSidewinder]

Pay on the Monday for that week, but for my son who has school dinners every day I pay half termly. For that reason we were told that the school couldn't introduce parentpay.

The child chooses what they want at lunch time. The school doesn't offer sandwiches the reason being if you want sandwiches you can bring them from home.

We are a large 3 class per year school.

[HouseofEliot]

Pay by cash or cheque. Two weeks notice to go on or come off dinners. Must have it everyday not 2 days a week for example. If two weeks in arrears parent will be called to provide packed lunch. If they are uncontactable child is given bread and butter and a piece 8f fruit. Children choose as they get their lunch. If their choice has run out they choose something else. Take it in turns to go first e.g. YR and Y3 Monday Y1 and Y4 Tuesday etc. We have an infant hall and a junior one so two lots of meals.

[Anja1Cam]

Pre-book the dinner/packed lunch pattern (and state if veggie or halal required) half-termly in advance, also should pay in advance (they happily issue credit notes or refunds at the end of term), by cash/cheque or online school pay type set-up. I tend to pay half-termly but am sure could do it weekly if I need to, as long as meals are paid for in advance.
Menu is also fixed, 4- or 3-week rotation, only one option and one veggie. If you ticked veggie you'll be asked to stick to it and vice-versa, much to DDs chagrin, she'd love to chop and change.
School has just taken the kitchen management back in-house but it did not affect the system or the menus

[SpottieDottie]

It's nuisance - they have to pay weekly and if they don't pay by lunchtime on the set day then they can't have lunches the next week. The same company does another local school and they pay daily so it can be done, it's just the school being awkward in my opinion.

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

Pay termly for school lunches, menu system 2 mains, salad and one pud or fruit to choose from daily. Very small school so no packed lunch option, veg grown at school. £2.10 per day.

[DontCallMeBaby]

ParentPay, keep the acct topped up, order on the day - the menu that's sent home seems accurate, so I know when I can abdicate responsibility and send DD in for school dinners. Works like a charm, but it is a big catering company behind it all.

[BubblyAll]

Wow, thank you for all the comments. So many different variations. As our cook doesn't know beforehand how many children she is catering for on any day, she needs to be clairvoyant to order the right food in the week before!

And we spend huge amounts of time (that we don't have) chasing parents for dinner money after Little Johnnie has been told to order himself a dinner without any money coming in. Paying in advance would certainly help that.

We do have parents who take the mickey time after time, not just with school dinners, but with picking children up (very) late and with many unreasonable demands. We smile to ourselves with the thought that those parents will be laughed at when they stamp their feet when Little Johnnie goes to senior school!

[Clutterbugsmum]

Ours have just gone over to Allpay. We have account for each child and top up each week. You can have school dinners, packed lunch or packed lunch monday to thursday and pizza on friday. But you have to give a weeks notice to change.


They have also started phoning parents to bring in lunch for those who have 'forgotton' packed lunch or have not paid for dnner and also reporting it as parent neglect to cps.

[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.

[TheReluctantCountess]

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

[StampyIsMyBoyfriend]

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

[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?

[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!

[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.

[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 ?

[careeristbitchnigel]

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

[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,

[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.

[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!

[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).

[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.

[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.