Phase: Primary
Local Authority: Lewisham
Holbeach on going cashless
The School Business Manager (SBM) at Holbeach outlined why the school decided to collect payments online from parents: “We wanted to remove cash from our school; collecting, banking and answering queries was costing us a significant amount of time which could be better utilised on more important tasks.”
The quest of selecting a provider
Keen to go fully cashless, Holbeach researched the online payments options available then reviewed their requirements against what was on offer in the market place. The School Business Manager (SBM) outlined the key reasons ParentPay stood out: “We selected ParentPay partly because of its integration with our current MIS/Finance system making the ongoing management of the system simple and helping us avoid unnecessary duplication of work.”
Benefits and lessons learned
The School Business Manager outlines some of the immediate benefits gained by parents and staff: “All our income is now stored in the system and totally transparent: parents can pay 24/7 whilst also seeing up-to-date balances without having to send cash into school, as a result, queries are reduced to a minimum.”
Maximising parental take-up to ensure the school made the most of ParentPay was also important to the Senior Leadership Team at Holbeach. The School Business Manager comments on the steps they put in place to get parents on board: “It was simple really, we followed a plan and used the promotional materials made available to us by ParentPay. We made sure we promoted the system to parents at every opportunity, ensuring parents understood the benefits ParentPay offered the school as a whole.”
The School Business Manager also added: “We also made sure right from the start that we didn’t just collect income for school meals, but also for clubs, trips, and other extracurricular activity, ensuring we saved as much time as possible and parents had a one-stop shop.”
Download the PDF version of Holbeach Primary’s School journey with ParentPay.
