Southborough Primary School

Phase: Primary

Local Authority: Bromley

Objectives

Save administration time by removing cash from school.
Make paying more efficient.
Improve security.

Solution

Introduce an online payment system that allows parents to pay conveniently and school to collect payments more efficiently.

Outcome

Reduced cash in school
Improved security
Significant time savings

Online payments help Southborough Primary improve efficiency

Sue Alderson, School Business Manager at Southborough Primary School in Bromley explains: “We introduced online payments to reduce the amount of cash and cheques coming into school, which would also save us administration time.”

Sue continues: “We were keen to have a system that allowed the payments to link into a school meal package to avoid any double entries.”

Southborough realises multiple benefits of online payments

The school was able to almost immediately notice the benefits since introducing online payments. “The amount of cash and cheques our team has to count, and bank has dropped significantly, which has had a positive impact on staff due to the time this has saved.”

Encouraging parents to pay online

There are several ways to get parents on board. Sue outlines what has worked for Southborough: “We send out regular letters to parents explaining this is our preferred payment option. We exercise a cashless agenda at our before and after school club for security reasons, which is now almost cash free. In the past, we have also invited parents into school to show them how to use the system at parents’ evenings.”

What Southborough Primary has to say to other schools

Sue explains how other schools can overcome the obstacle of getting parents onboard: