Dinner money is set to become a thing of the past at a Shropshire school due to fingerprint technology which will help pupils pay for their meals.
The biometric system which would possibly be more at home in the latest James Bond movie or Mission Impossible blockbuster is being set up at the Lakelands School, Sports and Language College in Ellesmere.
Pupils will be able to scan in their fingerprints to access their dinner accounts and their meals will be debited straight out after their picture and details pop up on the tills.
School bursar Judy Bailey said it would reduce time spent handling cash, speed up service and encourage more pupils to take school meals and healthy options on offer.
The biometric cashless catering system will go live on June 6.
The IMPACT system has been developed by Cunninghams, of Birmingham, who are specialists in retail, hospitality, leisure, cashless and CCTV security systems.
Mrs Bailey said: “The pupils will be using the device which reads their fingerprint and brings up their account which will come up on the till with a picture.”
She said it would get pupils used to handling accounts and benefit those who get free meals as they would be treated like everyone else.
Headteacher Ryan Jervis said: “We are the first school in Shropshire to install a biometric cashless catering system.
“The scheme will enable pupils to manage their own dinner money safely and securely through their own account accessed by an image of their fingerprint.
“The image is then discarded as soon as the account is activated.”
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5 Comments
jolly good idea roll it out nationwide and in retail two
many years ago my nephew was robbed daily of his dinner money
so never got fed nevertheless the school did nothing
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Fingerprinting children in schools is not uncontroversial. There are serious concerns about civil liberties, possible identity theft, sharing of data and parental consent.
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David! wake up and smell the coffee!! you preachers make me sick! identify fraud happens everyday via interception of bank statements and credit cards. its another way of identifying who you are. Especially in schools as edwin the genius has pointed out, its another way a child can feel safe in a school environment.
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I am a Lakelands Scool pupil myself…..and basically it is a poor system. Service takes longer, errors are already occuring (a friend got charged 3 times), and basically, what did cash ever do? It was easier and more convienent. Just another way of them tracking what we are eating which to be honest is getting out of hand and gettin rather over the top in my opinion.
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I am a pupil at Lakelands school and I think this system is very! good. It causes less queues and is much quicker. You also don’t have to remember to bring in change everyday. This system is ace!!
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