Schools and duty of care etc....
Discussion
I'm fuming tonight after finding out my daughter was refused lunch today.
In short, they use a fingerprint reader to pay. She paid, staff member got distracted, asked her to pay again. Because she had already paid, this put her over the daily limit. So they refused to let her have the lunch she had paid for.
She is new at comprehensive, at a much bigger school and not used to arguing with adults. She only ate as one of her friends shared his lunch.
I'm astonished that they will allow kids to go without food on a 'first offence', let alone today's incompetence.
This is on top of last weeks early close, where parents were told school busses had been rearranged. Which turned into some school busses had been rearranged....
I am somewhat peeved...
In short, they use a fingerprint reader to pay. She paid, staff member got distracted, asked her to pay again. Because she had already paid, this put her over the daily limit. So they refused to let her have the lunch she had paid for.
She is new at comprehensive, at a much bigger school and not used to arguing with adults. She only ate as one of her friends shared his lunch.
I'm astonished that they will allow kids to go without food on a 'first offence', let alone today's incompetence.
This is on top of last weeks early close, where parents were told school busses had been rearranged. Which turned into some school busses had been rearranged....
I am somewhat peeved...
Maddening for you, I quite see but, posing the counter argument, a lot of school's have very significant arrears on school lunches and, with budgets stretched, head teachers are increasingly taking a 'zero tolerance' approach to paying for school meals. This is to stop debts building up and to minimise catering spend.
It seems here as if the rules aren't being applied intelligently....
It seems here as if the rules aren't being applied intelligently....
ClaphamGT3 said:
Maddening for you, I quite see but, posing the counter argument, a lot of school's have very significant arrears on school lunches and, with budgets stretched, head teachers are increasingly taking a 'zero tolerance' approach to paying for school meals. This is to stop debts building up and to minimise catering spend.
It seems here as if the rules aren't being applied intelligently....
Which is fine if his daughter hadn't actually paid...It seems here as if the rules aren't being applied intelligently....
eltax91 said:
Why not? Unlike cash, can't lose it, can't nick someone else's, can't be bullied for it, can't pop to the local newsagents and spend it on fags. Parents get control over what is spent etc. Seems like the perfect solution to me.
It's also not that secure, as they only use a few points of significance rather than an entire fingerprint. They generally claim a 1 in 10000 chance of someone else having the same pattern, but it could happen more often in reality. Dallas fobs or rfid tags are generally quicker and more reliable than fingerprint scanners.The till operator will have the ability to view the previous sale/reprint the receipt. So they absolutely should have been able to see that she'd paid the first time around.
mjb1 said:
eltax91 said:
Why not? Unlike cash, can't lose it, can't nick someone else's, can't be bullied for it, can't pop to the local newsagents and spend it on fags. Parents get control over what is spent etc. Seems like the perfect solution to me.
It's also not that secure, as they only use a few points of significance rather than an entire fingerprint. They generally claim a 1 in 10000 chance of someone else having the same pattern, but it could happen more often in reality. Dallas fobs or rfid tags are generally quicker and more reliable than fingerprint scanners.The till operator will have the ability to view the previous sale/reprint the receipt. So they absolutely should have been able to see that she'd paid the first time around.
As for security. So what, it's kids lunch money, not like the parents are going to load up their life savings for some penne arrabiata
Zoobeef said:
loafer123 said:
Why didn’t they just look at her account to verify she had already paid?
That was the issue, they thought she was taking a second meal.How old is your daughter? Did she say she hadn't eaten?
She needs to be more confident, but at age 11, first month in new school with over 1,000 kids in it (ten times her previous school), that is going to take a little while.
Some of her friends have found that if the parent balance runs low, the school is happy to not feed the kids at lunchtime. I think that is pretty wrong, and the school should allow one meal to be 'in debt'. Obviously they can't go forever like that, but there needs to be some balance. In any case that was not the issue here.
Some people really do need to get a sense of perspective. It was one meal, and by the sounds of it nothing more than a genuine error. Go to reception on Monday before school starts and explain the situation and ask for confirmation that such a mistake is a one off and and won't happen again.
Then go to work and get on with your life. It's no big deal unless it happens regularly.
Then go to work and get on with your life. It's no big deal unless it happens regularly.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
It's a very popular system to implement in schools. Alongside the points made above, you have a lot of students wanting to purchase lunch, pretty much all at once, within a 30-40 minute lunch period. As such, cashless catering systems means a student can quickly pay for their meal, then the next student ... and the next student. No time wasted with giving change etc. Contact the main 'Office@' account, or speak to the Headteacher. I'm sure you will receive a reply shortly. I know from experience that the month of September is never great for large secondary schools - It's just a month of fire fighting!
Antony Moxey said:
Some people really do need to get a sense of perspective.
Perspective would be reading the ops post and seeing that this is not the 1st issue they have had with the school, or noticing that he isn't calling for the heads head, and is just venting.And that's before we broach the subject t of trying to learn on an empty stomach.
Antony Moxey said:
Some people really do need to get a sense of perspective. It was one meal, and by the sounds of it nothing more than a genuine error. Go to reception on Monday before school starts and explain the situation and ask for confirmation that such a mistake is a one off and and won't happen again.
Then go to work and get on with your life. It's no big deal unless it happens regularly.
The kid paid for something and never received it. If you ordered a pizza and paid by card and then called to see where it was to be told it had been delivered and nothing they could do about it would you simple let it be given it is one meal etc.Then go to work and get on with your life. It's no big deal unless it happens regularly.
Antony Moxey said:
Some people really do need to get a sense of perspective. It was one meal, and by the sounds of it nothing more than a genuine error. Go to reception on Monday before school starts and explain the situation and ask for confirmation that such a mistake is a one off and and won't happen again.
Then go to work and get on with your life. It's no big deal unless it happens regularly.
With attitudes like yours is little wonder people lose respect for each other so quickly these daysThen go to work and get on with your life. It's no big deal unless it happens regularly.
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