Would you tell the Head?

[debs40]

Our school's lunch meals are organised by a company which appears to belong to a neighbouring county council.

The dinner ladies etc are employed by this company.

Last term, I received a stroppy letter saying I had not been paying for meals (two payments had been missed)and that if my child tried to get another meal, he would be refused.

I was annoyed by this as I did not think this money was owing but I had to pay as DS would not get fed the next day (and he is funny enough about eating at school as it is). It was stuffed into his book bag so it was fortunate that I saw it.

I sent an email to the area manager who then tried to phone me (I don't know how she got access to my home and mobile numbers??) and I eventually got a print out of the money I had paid. She also spoke to the deputy head who came running out of school the other day to pass on a message!

The print out showed that only cheques had been credited. No cash payments were recorded. Indeed, only two cash payments have been recorded since the start of the academic year.

I raised this with the area manager who said they would look at their procedures if 'deemed necessary'. No apology, no offer to re-credit the money.

I think this is insufficient and have said I will raise with the head as it is worrying that money his going astray.

Do you think going to the head is appropriate? I don't want to be silly about it but I don't want other parents to be in the same position or a child to be refused food. And I think their response is pretty appalling.

Yes go to the head. If money is going missing it needs dealing with.

If the system isn't working properly, then it's quite proper to raise your concerns with the Head. I'm not sure how your system works, but you should always be able to keep track of money that you send in to school.

Perhaps the company or school could consider online payments - our school does this now and you can keep track of what goes in and out very easily.

Thanks. I will let her know. I do also think it is out of order that this area manager got hold of my home and mobile numbers and has been chasing me on both. I presume this came from school.

So you have sent cash in to school, and it has gone missing somewhere. Could it have been mislaid by your DS or even stolen from him? Might be worth a quick check with him first, but otherwise, it must have been lost or stolen in the office, so the head needs to know.

Thanks. The children don't take the money in themeselves.It is put in an envelope with a lunch form and deposited in a special lunch money box (like a post box) by parents. It is then emptied - I assume - by the MDSA supervisor. Definitely not DS!

I'd certainly have a word about how the system could be improved. Anyone who puts cash in the envelope, and I assume that's lots of parents, has no way at all of knowing what happens to it afterwards.
The system is open to both incompetance (losing the money, forgetting to write it down) and dishonesty (just plain pocketing it) and either way the parent has no protection as its just your word against theirs.
I don't have any experience of lunches being provided by outside firms but there must be a better way to arganise the payment. How do they know from day to day how many pupils need a lunch ?

Thanks for your help.

Head has just rung to say school are giving the diner staff a computer to record the payments - they weren't doing this. They will also be issuing receipts for cash.

I hate having to police these things but if lunch staff are prepared to send stroppy letters out saying they will not be feeding children because a parent hasn't paid, then they need to be sure they have got their facts right!