Important information: Parent Pay issues
Dear Parents/Carers
Parent Pay – monies owed for Years 3 to 6 lunches/ Some universal school meal payments
In September 2018, we launched a new system alongside Parent Pay called Cunninghams, with a view that it would simplify how parents pay for their children’s meals.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, there was an unforeseen technical difficulty in getting Parent Pay and Cunninghams to work together in one area.
This resulted in Parent Pay accounts not being charged for meals, even though it appeared that you had added credit to your account. No money was taken.
Despite repeated attempts with the company to overcome the problem, we have not been able to resolve the issue. We are no longer using Cunninghams with Parent Pay for this task.
We apologise for any inconvenience that has been caused. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
What you need to do.
As you will be aware, we sent communications to parents before half term, explaining that no money had been taken from you. that accounts were in arrears, and what action needed to be taken.
Not all parents however, have yet cleared their arrears. Can we please ask all of our parents to do this as soon as possible.
What next?
We have now spent time updating all our parent accounts which has taken considerable time as it was a Trust wide challenge.
Please do check your accounts to ensure it is in credit.
If you have not being paying in regularly you may now see a substantial debt showing on your account. Please do attempt to pay in as much as you can and we will be writing to those with larger debts in excess of £150 about how we can support you to pay this off.
Please also check and notify us of any anomalies, such as being charged if your child has Free School Meals, as these do not always show up to us immediately.
If you let the office know we can make the necessary adjustments in these cases.
For any queries please contact the school office on 0208 804 4126.
Frequently asked questions.
Q: Why has this happened?
A: We launched a new system alongside Parent Pay called Cunninghams, with a view that it would simplify how parents pay for their children’s meals.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, there was an unforeseen technical difficulty in getting Parent Pay and Cunningham’s to work together in one area.
This resulted in Parent Pay accounts not being charged for meals, even though it appeared that you had added credit to your account. No money was taken.
Despite repeated attempts with the company to overcome the problem, we have not been able to resolve the issue.
Q: Will you be charging me twice?
A: No. Any arears will only be for meals that have been had but not paid for. The error meant that no money was actually taken from you.
Q: Do I need to do anything?
A: Please do check your accounts to ensure it is in credit. Not all parents however, have yet cleared their arrears. Can we please ask all of our parents to do this as soon as possible.
If you have not being paying in regularly you may now see a substantial debt showing on your account. Please do attempt to pay in as much as you can and we will be writing to those with larger debts in excess of £150 about how we can support you to pay this off.
Please also check and notify us of any anomalies, such as being charged if your child has Free School Meals, as these do not always show up to us immediately.
Q: Am I being charged for the holiday periods?
A: No, you will only be charged for term time only and when your child has taken a school meal. If you feel this is incorrect in anyway such as you changed their meals to packed lunch please do contact the office.
Q: I think the amount is incorrect.
A: If you contact the office they can print you off a statement of your Parent Pay which will explain the charges.
Q: Why is my school dinners balance so high?
A: There was an issue at the start of the academic year where meals were charged to children as usual but they were not registering on ParentPay. This has now caught up and the balance showing is the accurate amount for school dinners taken to date.
Q: How can I view my statements?
A: You can view your statements on the portal. Please go to www.parentpay.com and log in as usual:
- Click on the Menu (three lines)
- Double click on Transaction History
- Choose Balance History
- Scroll down
- Choose the child
- Choose the account that you want your statement (Afterschool Care, Dinner Money etc)
- Put the dates you want your statements from and until
This will show you each transaction for meals and events for your child.
Q: What if I disagree with the balance?
A: School dinners are charged based on your child’s attendance each day, so when a child is marked present on the register a charge is made on ParentPay for that day’s meal. If you feel your child had some days absent or there is another reason you wish for us to check (Free School Meal entitlement etc) please let us know which dates are affected and provide us with as much information as possible about why you dispute the charge.