COMING SOON! Biometric Cashless Catering at King James

November 2014

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One of the 'Revaluation stations' that will be positioned throughout the new school.

From January 2015 King James I Academy will operate a biometric (finger scanning) cashless catering system to enhance our catering provision.

The main benefits of a biometric cashless system are to:

- Further enhance the Academy's drive to promote healthy eating.

- Improve the efficiency of service, with faster delivery.

- Ensure complete confidentially for free school meal entitlement - daily credit will be automatically assigned.

- Give parents confidence that money given for food purchased at the Academy will be used for that purpose.

- Allow the Academy's caterers to monitor their provision enabling them to be more responsive to the requirements of customers

Some key questions about the new biometric cashless catering system:

What is a biometric cashless system?

At the heart of the biometric cashless system is a software program which recognises each individual customer, holds individual cash balances and records expenditure and cash received. It also records where and when money is spent and on what food.

How are students and staff recognised by the system?

All students and staff will be registered by biometric measurement (finger scanning) and photograph. The biometric measurement takes a part image of some of the coordinates of the fingerprint. This information is then converted, encrypted and stored as a unique number. This data cannot be converted back into any image of a fingerprint, nor can it be used by any other source for identification purposes.

Pupils not using biometric measurement will be issued with a pin number.

What data will be held on the system?

Certain data will be held on the system to enable accurate operation. This will include the student's name, tutor group, photo, account balance, meal entitlement and the biometric number. Other than the biometric number, this data is already held on the Academy's administrative systems. All the data will be handled under the guidelines of the Data Protection Act. The data will only be utilised for the purposes of the cashless catering system and will be destroyed when the data is no longer relevant (such as when a student leaves the Academy).

How is the biometric system utilised to obtain food?

A finger will be placed on a biometric scanner at a till. This will activate an individual's account which will be displayed on screen for the catering operator, including name and current balance. The operator will then enter the selected food and drink into the system from an itemised keyboard, while the amount spent and the new balance will show on the display.

How is money entered into the system?

Initially, there will be two methods:

a) By putting cash, notes (£20, £10, £5) and coins (£2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p), into an automatic cash "revaluation' terminals located in the academy. After activation via a biometric scanner, the terminal will show the current account balance. Cash is then entered and, finally, a button pressed to mark the end of the transaction.

Payment can also be made via Schoolcomms , our secure internet payment site, accessible by password, enabling payment by debit or credit cards.

What about students entitled to a "free school meal'?

The system works exactly the same for all students whether they pay themselves or have a free school meal. All students gain access to their accounts via the biometric scanners. The amount allocated for a free school meal will be entered into the system daily by the software and will only be accessible at lunchtime. Any under-spend or missed dinner will be identified by the system and will not be added to the next day's balance. Students entitled to a free school meal can add money to their account as other students.

How will the pupil be able to check what the current cash balance is held in the system at any one time?

(a) By using the revaluation station. Place their finger on the scanner display the current cash balance. There is no need to deposit any money.

(b) Also a Remote Display at the point of sale will show the new cash balance when the food service is finished.

How can we be sure that a regular amount of money is used daily?

There is a daily spending limit for each student. No food above this limit can be bought. On request, an individual student limit of your choice can be set, to include a school dinner and break time snacks.

What happens if a student or member of staff does not hold a sufficient cash balance to pay for food?

An overdraft facility will operate on the new system.

How will the biometric cashless system encourage healthy eating?

After the new system has been operating for a while, we will explore the ways we can use the recorded information about food consumption and nutrient intake, in particular, for the purposes of healthy eating awareness and understanding.

Will parents be able to have any information on how the system is being used?

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. These reports can be for a specific day or between any dates you wish, they will be dated and timed to the minute, and can be obtained from the academy.