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Rivington & Blackrod High School

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Catering

We are proud to run our catering service in-house. The service offers a diverse food choice, drinks and meal options for the secondary school and sixth form students at Rivington and Blackrod High School. We aim to provide our students with tasty, nutritious food and drinks throughout the day. We have a number of catering options available where students can purchase food, including; a sixth form snack bar, a sandwich bar and a full catering facility and dining area and food is served at breakfast time, break time and lunchtime.

Please find below a selection of our menus. For our lunch offering, we offer a three week rolling menu with a Dish of the Day (including a Vegetarian Dish of the Day).

Break Time Menu

Lunch Time Menu

Dish of the Day

Vegetarian Dish of the Day

For further information on Free School Meals - please click here. 

A cashless catering system

We operate a cashless system at Rivington and Blackrod High School, where young people can obtain their food using a biometric recognition. Benefits of this system include:

  • A convenient and secure way of paying for school meals
  • Encourages students to buy healthy school food options
  • Reduces the risk of students losing money in school
  • Specific food allergy ingredients can be barred automatically
  • Reduces queuing times through an increased speed of service
  • Free meal allocations are automatic
  • Detailed reports are available to analyse all aspects of usage
  • Encourages students to manage their balances - teaching important life skills
  • A more efficient delivery of service helps the caterer to provide wholesome, healthy and enjoyable school meals at a low cost

What is a cashless catering system?

At the heart of the cashless system, there is a computer that is controlled by I.M.P.A.C.T (software). This allows the system to recognise each pupil, hold individual cash balances, record cash spent and cash received, record where money is spent, on what food, on any specific date and time of day.

How does the cashless catering system recognise pupils?

Each pupil will have their fingerprint measurements registered which will then be translated to an Alpha-Numeric number. The image is then discarded, but when used, this will enter them into the system program and identify them by a number.

How is this used to obtain a school meal?

Each student places their finger on a scanner at the point of sale; a display will show the server the pupil'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.

How is money entered into the system?

Money can be entered onto the system through:

  • Parent Pay will mean that parents can pay directly into the students catering account - click here for more information
  • By 'Cash Coin and Note' into an automatic cash revaluation terminal located in the school which is set to accept £20 £10 £5 notes £2 - £1 - 50p - 20p - 10p coins. (1p – 2p – 5p coins, cannot be used)

How does the Revaluation station work?

Firstly the pupil places their finger on the scanner mounted on the Revaluation station to enter the I.M.P.A.C.T system, which will display the pupil's name and current cash balance held within the system. The second stage coins are inserted into the slot. Each incremental cash balance will show on the display. Press the red button to tell the system that the transaction is completed.

How will each student be able to check what their current cash balance is?

Students can check their current cash balance by using the revaluation station. Students should place their fingers on the scanner to display the current cash balance. When food is served, the new cash balance will be shown on the remote display.

If we pay for a set number of meals, will it be used in one day?

No, a daily spend limit of £10.00 will be set for all pupils, and no food above that limit can be bought. On request, an individual student limit of your choice could also be set to include a school dinner and break time snacks.

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

The system works exactly the same for all students whether they pay or have a free school meal. The amount allocated for the free school meal will be entered into the system, ready for the lunchtime service. The system will then allow the required cash amount for each student daily to be allocated to their current cash balance. However, any underspend or missed dinner will be identified by the system and will not be added to the next day's balance. The student can also add extra cash to their balance in the system by using the revaluation station to enable a greater daily spend on the school dinner than allocated by their free meal allowance. There will be no queuing to be issued with a 'free meal' ticket.

What is meant by dietary control?

Should a student have a specific food allergy or be a diagnosed diabetic, this medical information can be coded into the system, preventing foods with allergy ingredients from being served to a particular student by automatically locking out relevant buttons on the keyboard.

Will students have problems using this system?

Some pupils may find it difficult to control their accounts for the first couple of weeks, but because of a daily spend limit, most learn this important life skill very quickly and enjoy being in control of their account.

Will we be able to find out how the system is being used?

If you have any concerns and would like to know how your son/daughter is spending their dinner money, then reports can be obtained giving comprehensive information on all aspects of use and each day's service. These reports can be for a specific day or between any dates you wish. They will be dated and timed and can be obtained from the Catering Team.

Data Handling

Certain data will be held on the system to enable accurate operation. This will include your child's name, form, photo, account balance and meal entitlement. This data will be handled under the guidelines of the data protection act and only used by parties directly involved with the implementation of the system.

Biometrics

Biometric information is information about someone's physical or behavioural characteristics that can be used to identify them. There are many possible biometrics, including, for example, a digital photograph or fingerprint.

As part of our identity management systems, we currently record a biometric measurement taken from a finger, not a fingerprint image. The information is stored in a highly secure database that the school only uses to confirm using a range of services. In future, we may look to use other biometric services if required.

The system we use gives us a secure database that holds biometric data. This can be used for a variety of services, meaning we store the least amount of data possible - it also helps to ensure that we don't have a loss of data. The data that is held cannot be used by any other agency for any other purpose. The school will not use the biometric information for any purpose other than that stated above. It will store the biometric information collected securely in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The school will not share this information with anyone else and will not unlawfully disclose it to any other person.

Current Legislation - The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012

This legislation requires schools to:

  • Inform parents about the use of the biometric systems in the school and explain what applications use biometrics
  • Receive written permission from one parent if the school is to continue processing biometrics for their child
  • Allow children to choose an alternative way of being identified if they wish
  • Children under 18 who do not have permission will not be able to use existing or new biometrics when using services in the school

If you do not wish your child to use the biometric system or your child chooses to use an alternative form of identification, such as an Identity Card, we will provide reasonable alternative arrangements that allow them to access current and future services.

Please note that when he/she leaves the school, or if for some other reason he/she ceases to use the biometric system, his/her biometric data will be permanently deleted.