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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Does your dc school take electronic payments?

52 replies

cheminotte · 12/03/2016 21:52

Eg parent pay for school trips, school dinners etc? Or even just direct debit?
Any pros and cons? I would love to be able to pay for school dinners online and not have to faff about with slips of paper and cash or cheque.
Views from school staff also welcome.

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Original poster

cheminotte · 13/03/2016 08:35

Thanks Hulababy - hadn't thought about free school dinners.
School dinners is done by a different company.
For dc1 and dc2 we've had payment for
Swimming (for travel there)
Science week contribution
School trip in March
School trip in June

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Original poster

cheminotte · 13/03/2016 08:38

Don'tcallme - really useful. Doesn't the school have to pay some sort of transaction or set up fees?

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superram · 13/03/2016 08:43

Parent pay charges 50p per transaction to the school. Parents do pay it as we add the cost to the cost of the trip.

MyHouseToday · 13/03/2016 08:46

Primary use SimsAgora(?) for school dinners and recently also for selected things like trips. Cash option still available.
Secondary use wisepay for everything, not sure if cash option still available.
No fees to the parent.

Fizrim · 13/03/2016 08:49

Parentpay here, for infants and juniors. Can pay for trips (and tick box for consent), swimming and music lessons. There is a minimum amount to transfer for school dinners, we don't use that but I think it's about £6 or similar.

Can use a Parentpay barcode at local shops to pay for school dinners but not for school trips. Not sure why tbh. It can be set to take staged payments/instalments.

PeteAndManu · 13/03/2016 09:02

We implemented Parentpay this year as a primary school. We have school dinners, trips, after school and before school care as well a nursery with additional sessions that can be paid for. We pay an annual fee for the system and a charge per transaction - the more that is paid in a single transaction the better as it has a flat fee element. We had a lot of cash and cheques which we banked 3x a week and it took a lot of admin time to count, record and bank the cash. If you have children at a different school that uses Parentpay you can add them to a single account and transaction fees are split between the schools. The more that you can do online the easier and more cost effective it is.

Our aim now is to encourage its use, consent is on line so it reduces the risk of losing slips etc. It is much easier for us with less risk of theft, losing cash and record keeping.

PeteAndManu · 13/03/2016 09:05

Fizzrum you should be able to use pay point for trips as well the school need to give you a letter with the barcode but it changes with each trip. Ask them if they could do it? The barcode tells the system who has paid and for what item. We have the option but so far no one has taken us up on it.

Bounced · 13/03/2016 09:22

Parentpay at ours, introduced about two years ago. Still seem to get consent slips to hand in sometimes though, not sure why as we tick the consent box online when we pay for the trip. It also has all school dinners (infants just get it shown as £0.00) and things like money they've raised for Sports Relief.

It doesn't have clubs run by outside providers or After School Club, though. However, ASC takes childcare vouchers and that website (Edenred) is brilliant - I can pay on my phone on the train with crappy signal in all of four clicks.

Ludwsys · 13/03/2016 09:49

Both primary and secondary pay via ParentPay, it's great. Secondary can also take cash into school and put it into s machine in the wall in the dining hall. They then pay by thumb print.

Original poster

cheminotte · 13/03/2016 11:50

Was there any resistance when it was introduced? Who in a small (one-form entry) primary school would look after that sort of thing?

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PatriciaHolm · 13/03/2016 14:37

We us Tucasi, which Also allows for online permission slips for trips and the PTA use it for bigger events too.

Hersetta427 · 14/03/2016 14:23

Our primary accepts wisepay payments.

noramum · 14/03/2016 15:12

Parent Pay for school and for PTA paypal

Grelton · 15/03/2016 07:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheWildRumpyPumpus · 15/03/2016 07:53

ParentPay for majority of things (dinners, uniform, trips, booking (free) performances). The only things done by cash/cheque to the office are before/after school club and events where the money goes to the PTA, so movie nights etc.

Yokohamajojo · 15/03/2016 10:59

Our school tried ParentPay but apparently were not happy with it so back to cash/cheques, that's the only reason I keep my checkbook. I wish they would sort it out

alltouchedout · 15/03/2016 11:09

Not at present but it's being looked into. The business manager is exploring costings I believe and I think it's on the agenda for this week's governor's meeting which I should probably read the paperwork for instead of mumsnetting but oh well.

Original poster

cheminotte · 15/03/2016 20:38

Let me know how you get on all touched

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ElsieMc · 17/03/2016 16:33

Our primary used lunchshop for dinners. You pay, then pick your child's meals. I have found it very convenient.

Just changed to parentmail pmx for all letters, parents evenings etc and school trips. It is okay in principle, but relies heavily on the school inputting info correctly in the first place which has been a real frustration.

You do have to remember to look regularly though as I popped on today to find something important happening tomorrow which I may have missed.

Original poster

cheminotte · 18/03/2016 21:20

Thanks Elsie - dc nursery used parent mail. Wondering who is best to ask about electronic payments. Straight to head? I don't even know who the parent governors are.

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Cellosoul5 · 21/06/2016 17:44

Be careful with Squid payments. I was a fan . . . until my daughter left her school for Oxford. Basically: they DON'T make it easy to stop automatic payments: their communication is terrible; their website is (apparently deliberately) hard to navigate and they obviously ardently hope that people will FORGET to cancel the automatic top-up Squid payments (for school meals). I suspect that, had my husband not been so alert, we'd be paying for Squid top-ups for years. . . so beware!

dementedpixie · 21/06/2016 17:52

Our primary has now switched to ipayimpact (from sQuid) which is what the secondary school uses. You can set an auto top up but you specify the amount of weeks it runs for rather than it going on forever. I found it easy to stop the auto top up for sQuid btw.

PiggyPlumPie · 21/06/2016 17:56

We use ipayimpact for both primary and secondary school but only lunches - it's really quick to top up a card if you've forgotten and get a text mid morning!

Pengweng · 21/06/2016 18:27

Our school (primary) is cash and paperless so you have to pay for everything online via parent pay.
Our PTFA recently went cashless too which makes it easier for working parents to pay for various activities/buy tickets for film nights etc. It also makes the treasurers job much easier

BathshebaDarkstone · 21/06/2016 18:29

No, I have to put £9 exactly in an envelope every week.

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