ParentPay case study
Phase: Primary
Local Authority: Powys
Powys school on going cashless
More and more schools across the country are making the decision to collect payments online from parents, taking the headache out of collecting and counting all that loose change. We hear what one Powys school thinks of collecting payments online.
Llangynidr Community Primary School made the move to become a cashless school, and have achieved an impressive 97% activation rate. Akemi Cuthbertson-Smith, School Secretary at Llangynidr outlines how their school has benefitted from having an online payment system:
“Using ParentPay has changed the way we do things. We have far less cash on the school premises, it’s not only safer but more secure too, as there are no risks of misplaced payments, and no risk of fraud.
There is also no need for our clerical staff to carry out the time-consuming task of counting and banking cash and cheques. ParentPay makes it so much easier to see who has paid and who hasn’t, it’s all in one place.”
Llangynidr’s Head Teacher adds: “It is a more convenient way of collecting contributions, as no time is wasted banking particularly in a rural location where up to around 40 minutes could be spent in travel time to get to the nearest location.”
Preparing parents for the change
Akemi explains:
“We have encouraged our parents to pay online which has been well received, as most of them prefer online banking and shopping, and are used to the online alternative. There are a few parents who struggle to get online, but we help them where we can.”
What do parents think?
We hear from a parent user:
“I use ParentPay mostly through my mobile phone and find it easy to use. All the accounts are right there on the homepage, which makes it straight forward to access the one I need. It’s really simple to add credit, put different items in the basket and pay for them all together. It’s also handy that I can save different cards for payments.”
