View from the classroom
View from the classroom T
his month, Education Today hears from Rob Munro, School Business Manager at St Michael’s CE Primary School, on the school’s decision to go cashless, and the benefits which the school has enjoyed since taking the decision.
Tell us about your school
St Michael’s C of E (VC) Primary School in Bournemouth has a 524 pupil roll which will be increasing to 630 in September 2017 when it completes its transition from two-form to three- form entry. This follows a series of changes at the school which has already seen an increase in student numbers, Key Stage 1 classes rising to three in each year group. The school also has a high proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds with English as a second language. Due to the recent UIFSM scheme and Pupil Premium funding, all 270 Key Stage 1 students now receive free school meals, meaning that orders have risen from 170 to 330 meals per day. These changes have challenged the school to source a new way of processing their school dinner payments in order to keep up with the increased demand.
How did you manage cash payments before moving to a cashless system?
Before introducing WisePay, St Michael’s had a traditional, manual system where all transactions including school trip payments and all permission slips, were made through the classroom. Parents used to queue up outside the school on Monday mornings with their child’s dinner money, which was inconvenient, particularly for those needing to get to work. Their payments would be summarised in an order sheet and then counted and verified by two members of administrative staff.
Why did you decide to go cashless? St Michael’s Governing Body was keen to bring cash payments to an end in line with our school expanding from two to three-form entry. This coincided with a number of parents enquiring about an alternative method of payment to cash and cheques.
The decision to move to online payments was eventually forced when the UIFSM scheme was announced and we knew that we were going to have an increase in the number of meals being ordered – a process which was done manually in the past. With free school meals’ rising from 170 to 330 meals a day, continuing in this way really wasn’t an option.
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What were you looking for from a cashless system?
My main requirements when selecting the new system were to save time and introducing a more efficient payment solution, which meant I could be more accountable for the income and expenditure across the year. I was sure that there was a payment method that was more convenient for parents and had a quicker and cheaper administration process. There was also a keenness on my part to instigate a better and more accountable income management system in the school.
“Online payments have modernised the school and parents can now make payments from the comfort of their own homes...” January 2016
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