At Baines School we operate an online payment system for trips, catering and almost every other item in school that you would normally pay for with cash or cheque.
ParentPay is used to allow parents/carers to pay for things online and remove the need for cash in school. It offers parents/carers the ability to monitor what your child is eating as well as being able to easily see any trips or other payment items available to your child.
Below you will be able to see guides on how to use ParentPay as well some extra information.
Payments
Please can parents be reminded to keep their child’s lunch account in credit. Payments online can take a while to be processed and for the money to appear on your child’s account in school, because of this we recommend parents pay at least 12 hours in advance of the student coming to school. For Paypoint we recommend at least 48 hours as this can take much longer than online payments. If possible it is also recommending to set up email alerts for low balances (guide available) as well as trying to pay for at least a weeks worth of meals, this saves you having to constantly put money on you child’s account and you can be notified when they have a low balance. You can use either the ParentPay website (click the logo at the top of this page) for making payments online or you can use PayPoint (click the logo at the top of the page) to find your local store and pay in cash.
Limits
Parents are reminded to check their children’s meals and spending, if parents are concerned with the amount their child is spending then limits can be placed on their account. Limits can be set at a daily spend limit or can be broken down by meal times eg £4 a day or £1 at break and £3 at lunch. Please let us know if you wish for limits to be put in place. Please also make sure your child is aware of the limits as the till system will stop them from purchasing items after they hit the limit. The catering staff with put main meal items through first before any drinks or desserts. Drinks may be removed from students that are in debt and have attempted to purchase them.
Free School Meals
If your child has free school meals, they will be allocated £2.70 per day. This allowance will only be available to them for use at lunch and any remaining allowance will be cleared from their account each day (this means the allowance isn’t carried over into the next day). If you child wishes to buy anything at any other time eg drinks at break, then you will need to make sure you have an active ParentPay account and you add money to their lunches (guides available).
Pin Numbers & Thumbprints
We use fingerprint scanning to allow students to purchase items from the refectory as well as a balance checker mounted on the wall at the bottom of the stairs by the exit of B block. The use of fingerprint scanning is the safest and quickest way for students to pay or check their balance, all students are encouraged to have their fingerprint registered and to use it. For the small number of students who do not wish to have their fingerprint used, they can be issued with a 4-digit pin number. The pin number can be typed into the balance checker and told to the member of staff on the tills in order to pay for food. Students are reminded that pin numbers should not be shared between students.
Due to GDPR, we must have written confirmation as to whether or not your child is allowed to have their fingerprint used.
Biometric Consent Form
Biometric Letter
Biometric Data Protection
Biometric FAQ
Guides for Mobile / Tablet
ParentPay also offers a FAQ section on their website for parents. This page should include information on withdrawing funds from your ParentPay account as well as other common questions.