VERICOOL AND CASH-FREE CATERING

The College uses a computerised fingertip scheme called VeriCool. Below is a brief outline of how the scheme works, the benefits to the College and parents, and what children are required to do. 

What is VeriCool?

VeriCool is the way in which students pay for lunches at the College. The software verifies a student’s identity by reading their fingertip and confirming who they are.

How it works

The system uses fingertip digital signature recognition. We enroll all students and teachers capturing 120 data points from each middle finger on both hands. 

At no time do we capture a fingerprint. The data points captured are very similar to reference points on an Ordinance Survey map, and they are stored on a stand alone, encrypted server. This information is for use within the College and is not released to anyone outside of the College and is subject to the same level of security as all other student data.

Cash Free Catering

The College operates a cash-free catering service. This is not a swipe card system but links in with the VeriCool fingertip system. The system helps us to improve the service provided for your children in the following ways:

• It enables the students to be served more efficiently and quickly and keep queues to a minimum
• It ensures complete confidentiality for students entitled to free school meals
• It is a unique verification. No one else can use your child’s finger tip
• It helps us to prevent bullying, by ensuring that student’s no longer need to carry cash to College
• It ensures that money provided by the parents to pay for schools meals is used only for that purpose.

Cash-free catering is run by Impington Village College in conjunction with Caterlink who provides catering facilities for the College. The system operates in the following way:
You need to assess how much your child will spend on breakfast, break and lunch each day.
A default maximum spend has been set up of £5.00 per day. If you wish to raise or lower this limit, please state on the slip below.
Before a student can use cash-free catering, they will have to enroll on VeriCool. We will aim to carry out registration during the Year 6 Induction Days on Monday 22 June and Tuesday 23 June. If this has not been possible, registration will take place on the first day of the Autumn Term. Please complete the enclosed permission slip, and return to the College via your child on the 22 June. Alternatively, please return to the Finance Office prior to this date. We will set up an account for your child. That account requires funds to be deposited before they can use it. This can be done in several ways:

• The easiest and quickest way is by using “Parentpay” which is an online secure method of payment where parents can log on from home and commit funds to lunch or other College activities. The funds will be automatically credited to your child’s account removing the need for them to queue or bring cheques/cash into college. Please see the ‘Parentpay’ information sheet (enclosed) for more details. 

• Cheques can be written payable to Cambridgeshire County Council. These should be delivered to the Finance Office clearly marked with the student’s name and form. Please note there may be a small delay in processing if cheques are deposited in the College canteen or late in the day.

As a back up on the first day of term, when accounts are being set up and fingertip registration is taking place, a cash till will be available. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR CHILD HAS CASH FOR USE AT THIS TILL UNTIL THE ACCOUNT IS SET UP AND HAS
FUNDS AVAILABLE. Your child will be able to check the balance of their account from either the Finance Office or the Canteen.

Free School Meals: Children who are entitled to free school meals will automatically have £2.10 added to their daily account. Parents who wish to add to this amount can send in money to the College. The free school meal allowance ‘purse’ will be used up before the personal ‘top-up’ purse is used.

If you have any queries regarding VeriCool, please contact the Finance Office.

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