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!

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.

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.

They choose between meat and veggie on the day.

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

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.

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

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

Our school has school meal only for every child.

We pay online at the start of each term.

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.

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,

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.