Brookfield Community School is to use hi-tech fingerprint technology to enable pupils to pay for their meals and reduce the need for any cash transactions from a few weeks into the new term.
The finger print recognition scheme should reduce the length of the lunch queue in the school and will also reduce the need for pupils to carry any cash during the school day, which reduces the risk of bullying.
The BioStore technology uses finger print activation to pay for individuals’ lunches
The new hi-tech scheme is due to be rolled out at the Sarisbury school – where the pupils return this week – on September 26.
Head Teacher Ria Allan said: “What a cashless systems does is reduces issues around children who may feel discriminated against because they have free school meals compared to those who don’t.
“I hope it will encourage more people who are entitled to free school meals to take them up.
“We only have a half hour lunch break. So this will make it a quicker, more efficient service. It gives more time for children to eat meals as opposed to queue up and pay for meals.”
The BioStore cashless lunch system will require parents to put money into an account for their child to use. Those pupils who already have free school lunches, will have £2 per day added to their account by the school for use at either breakfast, break or lunch.
If parents have not topped up the child’s account before they attempt to pay for their meal, then “no child would go hungry”, Mrs Allan said. The school would allow the child to eat and notify the parent to pay for the meal afterwards.
The 300 children at Brookfield who have free meals will be introduced first to the scheme, with the hope that more children who buy school dinners will also be registered shortly afterwards.
School business manager John Paton, who has been integral to the scheme at Brookfield, said the new service protected individual identities and the fingerprints could not be passed on to any other authority, such as the police.
Impact Cashless Catering Systems’s Biometric finger print reader for Brookfield pupils to pay for meals
Each pupil will have their finger image registered and that will then be translated to an Alpha Numeric number. Each fingerprint gives a unique code which recognises each individual’s identity when paying for their lunch, deducting the money from the account automatically when their finger is placed on the BioStore pad.
“On a whole finger print you could get hundreds of different points,” said Mr Paton. “This system only takes between 10 and 60 points of a finger, so you can’t record the whole finger print.
“It is then turned into a mathematical algorithm and the finger print image, which was taken in the initial stage of getting the data together, is then discarded. That would not be able to be used by the police.
“I think it will be a great success once it’s in place and people have got used to it. It will be a real benefit to the students.”
Each student will have a daily spend limit of £5. The scheme also allows parents to see what their children are buying during their school day on an account specifically-designed for the pupil. Reports can be obtained from the system giving comprehensive information on all aspects of use for each individual pupil, as well as each day’s service.
An alternative system of swiping a pin card for paying without cash will be available for those not wishing to use the finger print system.
As well as the new cashless lunch system Brookfield is also introducing canteen breakfasts from 8am to 8.30am every morning.