At Somervale School, our dedicated, friendly Catering Team works hard to create new and exciting meals for our students at the school as well as producing a wide range of hot and cold meals and snacks to suit all tastes. The canteen is open to students at break time and lunchtime.
If you have any questions about the menus or have special dietary requirements, please contact our Catering Manager via Main Reception on 01761 414276.
Click here to view the three week rotation menu.
What is cashless catering?
Cashless catering is a computerised system which removes the need for cash to be used at the till in the canteen. Spending is recorded in the student’s account by the use of a thumbprint or PIN number. When a thumb print or PIN is used, the software allows recognition of each individual student, holds individual cash balances, records cash spent and cash received, records where money is spent, on what food, on any specific date and time of day.
Money can be put into the system by credit/debit card via the Internet using our parentpay system.
What is a Cashless System?
At the heart of the cashless system is a computer controlled program which will:
How are students recognised by the system?
Each student will have a mathematical representation of their fingerprint registered; this will then be translated to an alphanumeric code and entered on the system. The system will recognise students by their unique number.
How is this then used to obtain a school meal?
The student simply places their finger on a scanner at the point of sale; a display will show the kitchen supervisor the student’s name, class and current cash balance held within the system. The selected food items will be entered into the system from an itemised keyboard while the amount spent and the new cash balance will show on the display.
Will students have problems using this system?
Some students may find it difficult to manage their spending for the first couple of weeks. If this is a problem then you can contact the school to request that a daily limit is put onto their account.
Payments for all trips and visits are online using our ParentPay system. The internet payment system will not only create a new payment option for parents, but it will also record and store details of all financial transactions quickly and efficiently, and will generate a receipt once a purchase has been made. On starting the school you will be provided with a username and password.
You can access this system by logging in via the link below. There is a user guide available which you may wish to refer to before making your first payment.
If you have any queries regarding online payments or have not received your user name and password details, please contact Somervale School Reception.
To login to the Online Payment system please click on the icon.
