Dual Recognition
Biometric & PIN Cashless Payment System.

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What is a Cashless System?
A cashless system is used for the payment of school meals, where no cash is taken at the point of sale. Each student and member of staff using the system will be allocated an account, much like a bank account. This information is held on a secure server and stores details of individual cash balances, records cash spent and cash received, records where money has been spent, on what food and the exact date and time the money was spent.

How are students and staff recognised by the system?
Prior to the system going live all individuals intending to use the system will have their finger scanned. This finger scan will be converted into a number and stored on the system against that individual. Once the finger scan has been taken it is automatically converted to numeric form. No register of fingerprints is kept and it is impossible to reconstitute a fingerprint from the numeric reference. (See the section Biometric Registration for further details)

Non Biometric Students
For individuals not wishing to use the biometric aspect of the system, a PIN number will be allocated.

How is the Biometric Recognition System used to obtain a meal?
At the till point is a dermal scanner, when the student wishes to pay for the meal they simply place their thumb / finger on the scanner; this will bring up that individuals account. A display will show the terminal operator the cardholder’s photo, name, tutor group and current cash balance held within the system. The selected food items will be entered into the system from the touch screen terminal while the product values and the total balance will show on the display. For individuals using a PIN, simply give the terminal operator your number, and the account will be brought up.

How is money entered into the system?
(a) By ‘Cheque’ made payable to “?” to cover any period. i.e.  Term - 1/2 Term - Month or Week - Or a fixed monetary amount of your own choice.

NB: to enable the catering office to identify the account in which to place any payment by cheque, please write the full name and tutor group of the student on the back of the cheque or on the envelope in which the cheque is placed. If the payment is to be shared between two students, identify both with full name and class group.

b) By Cash (notes/coins) into Revaluation Units located around the school.

How does the Revaluation Unit work?
Firstly the student places their thumb / finger on the scanner mounted on the Revaluation Unit, the system will identify the individual and display their name and current cash balance held within the system.
For individuals using PIN numbers simply enter your PIN on the PIN pad and press enter, the system will identify the individual and display their name and current cash balance held within the system.
The second stage – coins/notes are inserted into the slot. Each incremental cash balance will show on the display, simply press the green lit button to complete the transaction.

How can you check your current balance held on the system?
By using the Revaluation Unit, simply access your account by placing your thumb / finger on the scanner or by entering your PIN; there is no need to deposit any money. Your details will show on screen and then press the green button when finished.

If we pay for a set number of school meals, can it be spent in one day?
No, a global period spend limit will be set up for all students and no purchases above that limit can be made.

Period   Global Limit
Breakfast  £0.50
Break   £0.60
Lunch   £2

On request the school will set up individual spending limits for pupils.

How does the system deal with students entitled to Free Meal Benefit?
The system works exactly the same for all students whether they pay or have a free school meal entitlement. The amount allocated for the free school meal will be entered into the system by the software daily and will only be accessible at dinner break.
The system will then allow on a daily basis the required cash amount for each individual student to be allotted to their current cash balance. However, any under spend 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 on to his or her balance in the system by using the Revaluation Unit, to enable a greater daily spend on the school dinner than allocated by their free meal allowance. As this allowance can only be spent on a school dinner, extra cash added into the system can also be used for breakfast or break time snacks.
All students in receipt of this benefit will retain complete anonymity.

How will ‘Healthy Eating’ be encouraged?
After the new system has been operating for a while we hope to further enhance the school’s “healthy eating policy”. When the food is selected and sold through the system it will also register points for a balanced, healthy and nutritious school dinner. Promotions will be run with awards given to the top scoring pupils.

What is meant by dietary control?
The system has the ability to bar a specific product or group of products from being sold to an individual throughout the day or at specific periods. Where a student has a food allergy or is diabetic the sale of these products can be barred to that individual so it is impossible for that student to purchase these products through the system. This is accompanied by an on screen warning advising the till operator.

Will we 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 student as well as each day’s service. These reports can be for a specific day or between any two dates you wish, they will be dated and timed to the minute and can be obtained from the system administrator. Some of the reports available are:-

a) To show every item of food sold to that account and the cost of each serving.
b) To show all individual payments made directly to the school by cheque or cash and manually entered onto the system.
c) Each payment made at the Revaluation Unit by the student including the number of individual coins and their denomination.
d) Every transaction including all sales and credits itemised.

Biometric Registration
Each individuals finger and thumb prints are unique. The Biometric cashless system will store only a section of the print as a unique number and not as an image.

Each child will have that unique number stored on a central server. This is done by scanning the finger or thumb with a non-evasive electronic scanner, which passes light over the finger or thumb. The same scanner will be installed in the Revaluation machines where the students deposit coins / notes and at the tills where they get their food.

A print will be stored numerically, as a set of between 20 and 50 reference points, unique to the individuals print. Each reference point comprises of three numbers which are the X and Y co-ordinates and an angle of curve. The system does not store the image of the finger scanned. The stored co-ordinates are only of use in matching part of the individuals print and cannot be used for the purpose of reconstructing a print.

The numbers will be held in a secure SQL database on the server. Access to this database is given only by the school and then only to those who are required to administer the system.

Data Handling
Certain data will be held on the system to enable accurate operation. This will include your child’s name, class, 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 associated with the school. Access to this information is controlled strictly by the school only.

see Also the BECTA guidlines document - Becta Guidelines